The benefits and challenges of embedding specialist palliative care teams within homeless hostels to enhance support and learning: Perspectives from palliative care teams and hostel staff.

BACKGROUND: People residing in UK homeless hostels experience extremely high rates of multi-morbidity, frailty and age-related conditions at a young age. However, they seldom receive palliative care with the burden of support falling to hostel staff. AIM: To evaluate a model embedding palliative specialists, trained as 'homelessness champions', into hostels for two half-days a month to provide support to staff and residents and facilitate a multidisciplinary approach to care. DESIGN: An exploratory qualitative design. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Four homeless hostels in London, UK, including nine hostel managers/support staff and seven palliative care specialists (five nurses and two social workers). RESULTS: Benefits to introducing the model included: developing partnership working between hostel staff and palliative care specialists, developing a holistic palliative ethos within the hostels and improving how hostel staff seek support and connect with local external services. Challenges to implementation included limited time and resources, and barriers related to primary care. CONCLUSION: This is the first evaluation of embedding palliative care specialists within homeless hostels. Inequity in health and social care access was highlighted with evidence of benefit of this additional support for both hostel staff and residents. Considering COVID-19, future research should explore remote ways of working including providing in-reach support to homelessness services from a range of services and organisations.

Evaluation of training on palliative care for staff working within a homeless hostel.

BACKGROUND: In the UK, many people experiencing homelessness whose health is deteriorating remain in homeless hostels due to few suitable alternative places of care. Hostel staff struggle to support residents with deteriorating health and palliative care services are rarely involved. There is recognition of the need for multiagency working to support this group. OBJECTIVES: To pilot and evaluate the impact of a two-day training course for hostel staff around supporting clients with palliative care needs, and increasing multiagency working. DESIGN: Mixed methods evaluation using pre-and-post training data collection. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: Frontline staff from two London homeless hostels. METHODS: Staff from two hostels attended a two day training course. Self-perceived confidence in supporting residents with deteriorating health, knowledge of palliative care, openness to discussing deteriorating health and work related stress were assessed at baseline and immediately after training using a novel questionnaire. Qualitative data was collected via focus groups immediately after and three months post-training. RESULTS: Twenty four participants attended at least one day of training, 21 (87%) completed the course. Training was reported to be useful and relevant. Modest improvements in self-perceived work related stress, knowledge, confidence and openness were observed following training. At three months, qualitative data indicated the beginnings of a shift in how palliative care was conceptualised and an increase in knowledge and confidence around supporting residents. Anxiety regarding the role of the hostel in palliative care, the recovery focused ethos of homelessness services and fragmented systems and services presented challenges to establishing changes. CONCLUSIONS: Training can be useful for improving knowledge, confidence, openness and work related stress. Recommendations for implementing changes in how people experiencing homelessness are supported include embedding training into routine practice, promoting multidisciplinary working, incorporating flexibility within the recovery focused approach of services and recognising the need for emotional support for staff.

End-of-life care for homeless people: A qualitative analysis exploring the challenges to access and provision of palliative care.

BACKGROUND: Being homeless or vulnerably housed is associated with death at a young age, frequently related to medical problems complicated by drug or alcohol dependence. Homeless people experience high symptom burden at the end of life, yet palliative care service use is limited. AIM: To explore the views and experiences of current and formerly homeless people, frontline homelessness staff (from hostels, day centres and outreach teams) and health- and social-care providers, regarding challenges to supporting homeless people with advanced ill health, and to make suggestions for improving care. DESIGN: Thematic analysis of data collected using focus groups and interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Single homeless people ( n = 28), formerly homeless people ( n = 10), health- and social-care providers ( n = 48), hostel staff ( n = 30) and outreach staff ( n = 10). RESULTS: This research documents growing concern that many homeless people are dying in unsupported, unacceptable situations. It highlights the complexities of identifying who is palliative and lack of appropriate places of care for people who are homeless with high support needs, particularly in combination with substance misuse issues. CONCLUSION: Due to the lack of alternatives, homeless people with advanced ill health often remain in hostels. Conflict between the recovery-focused nature of many services and the realities of health and illness for often young homeless people result in a lack of person-centred care. Greater multidisciplinary working, extended in-reach into hostels from health and social services and training for all professional groups along with more access to appropriate supported accommodation are required to improve care for homeless people with advanced ill health.