The need for health literacy on palliative care.

Abstract

Palliative care should be available to all people with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, but despite all the efforts of the Portuguese Association of Palliative Care and the National Commission for Palliative Care, there are still Portuguese people with palliative needs who do not have access to these. One of the recommendations of the Strategic Plans for the Development of Palliative Care (PEDCP) is that the curricular unit of palliative care be integrated into all pre-graduate training courses in the area of health so that health professionals may be provided with basic training in palliative care. In addition to this recommendation, palliative care should be incorporated into all levels of care to which the population has access in Portugal, Primary Health Care (CSP), Hospital Health Care (CSH) and Integrated Long-term Care (CCI), the greater the involvement of all stakeholders through collective and social action, the more effective this may become.Thus, palliative care reduces the length of hospital stay, readmissions, therapeutic futility, the use of emergency services and intensive care, and, consequently, decreases health costs. Therefore, this article aims to outline a health literacy plan for palliative care for the Portuguese population residing in Portugal.