Availability and stability of palliative care for family members of terminally ill patients in an integrated model of health and social care

Palliative care and the integration of health and social care have gradually become the key direction of development to address the aging of the population and the growing burden of multimorbidity at the end of life in the elderly.

To explore the benefits/effectiveness of the availability and stability of palliative care for family members of terminally ill patients in an integrated institution for health and social care.

This prospective observational study was conducted at an integrated institution for health and social care. 230 patients with terminal illness who received palliative care and their family members were included. Questionnaires and scales were administered to the family members of patients during the palliative care process, including quality-of-life (SF-8), family burden (FBSD, CBI), anxiety (HAMA), and distress (DT). We used paired t-tests and correlation analyses to analyze the data pertaining to our research questions.

In the integrated institution for health and social care, palliative care can effectively improve quality of life, reduce the family’s burden and relieve psychological impact for family members of terminally ill patients. Palliative care was an independent influencing factor on the quality of life, family burden, and psychosocial status. Independently of patient-related and family-related factors, the results are stable and widely applicable.

The findings underline the availability and stability of palliative care and the popularization of an integrated service model of health and social care for elder adults.