Accessing palliative and end-of-life care can be especially difficult for unhoused persons. Without a fixed address, community- and home-based palliative care may be inaccessible for those with advanced illness. Currently, Hamilton Region lacks a dedicated palliative care strategy to support unhoused persons across care settings. Hospital and community-based providers are fragmented, with little collaboration between programs, resulting in care gaps. Meanwhile, other jurisdictions may focus on creating new care models with “takeover” approaches that do not support generalist palliative care delivery. The objectives of this environmental scan are to identify existing care pathways in Hamilton-Central, and to understand how palliative care is currently accessed by unhoused persons managing advanced illness. First, we are conducting a scoping literature review of care models and interventions to better understand palliative care provision across similar urban areas. Second, interviews and focus groups will be conducted with unhoused individuals and community- and acute care-based providers. These discussions will help describe the health and social needs among those managing advanced disease and precarious housing, including how they currently access care, and how transitions occur across multiple care settings (e.g. community, hospital, hospice, shelters). Findings will inform recommendations and care pathways linking existing healthcare teams and agencies to improve equitable access to palliative and end-of-life care in Hamilton Region.
Project Lead: Priya Gupta Contact: Ashlinder Gill (gilla89@mcmaster.ca)
Prison Health, Research Project Update
Research Project Update