• Supportive care

Erica Borgstrom's editorial is my editor's choice in this issue. She identifies a tension that emerging in the literature between end-of-life care policy-driven initiatives, specifically, advance care planning, and the flexibility that an emphasis on relational care can bring. Reviews of care at the end of life have highlighted concerns about the importance of individual needs and the needs of carers. However, good intentions and positive care philosophies often become subsumed in the routines and imperatives of organisations. The use of such tools to facilitate care has come from a desire to provide more person-centred care, but tools in themselves are neither care-giving nor valid indicators of end-of-life care. The danger is that, without …