Hospice care; an inspiration to industries that deny closure.

Its fantastic to hear that the UK was recently considered the best in the world for end-of-life care. The study by the Economist Intelligence Unit looked at 80 countries capabilities across hospitals and hospices, including areas of staffing, environments, skills, quality and affordability of care. 

It hasn’t been just the rich nations who have been developing this, also many of the poorer ones too - Panama, Chile, Mongolia and Uganda were all praised in the report. A reflection of the increasing concern globally as all nations start to experience an ageing population and the likelihood of a ‘drawn-out’ death for many of their people.

Its reassuring to see the issue being taken more seriously. A wonderful comment was made by Dr Stephen Connor, of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance, said:

"The biggest problem that persists is that our healthcare systems are designed to provide acute care when what we need is chronic care. That's still the case almost everywhere in the world."

This echo’s some of the denial that we experience in other industries at end of life for Products, Services, and Digital Products. A mindset that sees overwhelming focus on sales and little regard to how that experience ends for the user. Many industries approach the end of the customer engagement with denial, instead of design.

There is a lot to learn from Hospice care when approaching the issues we have in consumption. Accepting and designing for the end would be a good start.