SPECIAL SESSION: A Victim of Our Success: Dealing with the Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases

Description/Overview: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), (heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases) are both a global social and health dilemma. Scientific advances have resulted in improved outcomes for heart disease, stroke and many cancers. Cancer for example, once considered an imminent death sentence, is now a chronic disease where individuals can live for decades in remission and often for many years with metastatic disease. In addition to self-management people with NCD are likely to require prolonged care both from professionals and informal caregivers and face a series of complex decisions about treatments. These NCDs are likely to be the scourge of future decades, costing individuals, communities and governments. Nurses are well placed to engage in policy, practice, education and research to improve health outcomes of the growing numbers of people with NCDs.