Background: Despite various governmental strategies, the number of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria has risen over the last decade. PEH face greater rates of physical and mental ill-health generally, but also experience poorer outcomes at the end-of-life, including greater rates of malignancy. Effective palliative and end-of-life care is vital to ensure their last days are as pain-free and dignified as possible. Despite inequity in end-of-life outcomes, there exists little clarity on existing approaches and resources available for this growing vulnerable cohort.
Aim and Objectives: This project aims to understand the provision of palliative care for PEH in Victoria. This will be fulfilled by two objectives; 1) To identify and map existing resources and strategies for palliative care provision to PEH, and 2) To explore providers’ perspectives and perceived barriers or facilitators to providing palliative care to PEH.
Methodology: This mixed-methods survey study of palliative care providers involves two parts: 1) Quantitative data collection: provider demographics, capacities, policies and training; 2) Qualitative data collection: perceived barriers, facilitators, and other perspectives around palliative care provision for PEH. Data will be collected until thematic saturation is achieved. Quantitative data will be descriptively analysed and represented through heat maps, graphs or tables. Qualitative data will be thematically analysed as per Braun and Clarke’s method to allow description of key themes from providers around delivering quality care.
Results: Preliminary results suggest that palliative care access for PEH is multifactorial. Barriers include weak relationships between PEH and healthcare, lack of address and limited funding. However, some facilitators to access include multidisciplinary team strengths and flexible policies.
Significance: This will be the first work to map existing services and resources available for palliative care provision to PEH in Victoria. It will establish baseline information to advise future service development to improve palliative care access for this growing cohort.