Beyond Correct Postures and Flexible Bodies: Exploring the Relevance of Yoga in End-of-Life care.

Since the mid-twentieth century, Yoga has emerged as a multi-million US dollar global fitness industry. It has drawn worldwide followers to practice postural and breathing techniques. However, the fitness model only elucidates how to live well and not how to die well. This article contends that the body-centric approach has little relevance to those who are dying. It espouses that yogic values like transcendence, holistic healing, harmony, and death-acceptance that qualify a 'good' death are regrettably lost in modern times. In conclusion, the soteriological aim needs to be retained in the modern yogic discourse to live well and die gracefully.

Assessment of Private Homes as Spaces for the Dying Elderly.

AIM: This study makes an assessment of end-of-life care of the elderly in private homes in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Primary data were collected from private homes which supported elder care through observation and semi-structured interviews with primary family caregivers of the elderly. RESULTS: The study finds that the major factors preventing private homes from providing adequate care to the elderly were architecturally inadequate housing conditions, paucity of financial support, and scarcity of skilled caregivers. Besides, considerable neglect and domestic abuse of the elderly was also found in some private homes. In addition, the peripheral location of private homes within public health framework and inadequate state palliative policy, including stringent narcotic regulations, accentuated the problems of home care. CONCLUSION: The study concludes by questioning the rhetoric of private homes as spaces for the dying elderly in Kolkata and suggests remedial measures to improve their capacity to deliver care.

Dying in intensive care units of India: Commentaries on policies and position papers on palliative and end-of-life care.

PURPOSE: This study critically examines the available policy guidelines on integration of palliative and end-of-life care in Indian intensive care units to appraise their congruence with Indian reality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six position statements and guidelines issued by the Indian Society for Critical Care Medicine and the Indian Association of Palliative Care from 2005 till 2015 were examined. The present study reflects upon the recommendations suggested by these texts. RESULT: Although the policy documents conform to the universally set norms of introducing palliative and end-of-life care in intensive care units, they hardly suit Indian reality. The study illustrates local complexities that are not addressed by the policy documents. This include difficulties faced by intensivists and physicians in arriving at a consensus decision, challenges in death prognostication, hurdles in providing compassionate care, providing "culture-specific" religious and spiritual care, barriers in effective communication, limitations of documenting end-of-life decisions, and ambiguities in defining modalities of palliative care. Moreover, the policy documents largely dismiss special needs of elderly patients. CONCLUSION: The article suggests the need to reexamine policies in terms of their attainability and congruence with Indian reality.