Palliative care for the older person: Cloak or cover-up?

Care of older people with incurable illness provides fertile ground for palliative care to flourish. True palliation means to cover the person and their family with a protective cloak of care including personalised attention to thoroughly assessed physical, spiritual, psychological, and emotional needs. Health professionals, chap-lains, and volunteers are encouraged to enter each person’s unique story in their journey towards death. When the palliative cloak is ill-fitting it becomes a mere cover-up; opportunities for care are missed. Brief case studies highlight the difference between a cloak of care and its converse, with reference where relevant to the Christian theological tradition.