Background: Providing palliative care for individuals who use alcohol and/or drugs poses a multi-faceted challenge. In addition to clinical and social needs, individuals may endure mental health problems, co-morbidities and homelessness, thus requiring a multi-disciplinary, flexible approach to care.
Aim: To identify the palliative care needs and models of care for people who use drugs and/or alcohol.
Design: A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted using the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis.
Data sources: Six databases were searched to identify relevant studies. Full text review and quality appraisal were completed independently and in-duplicate by two reviewers with conflicts resolved by a third reviewer. Qualitative and quantitative data were tabulated together using narrative synthesis, then categorised according to outcomes of interest, with similar and divergent findings reported accordingly.
Results: Thirteen studies were included, nine qualitative and four quantitative, using a range of data collection methods, across various settings. The difficulties for individuals who use alcohol and/or drugs as well as their formal and informal carers, in relation to end-of-life care were examined, revealing access, care and skills issues. Three themes emerged which could underpin the development of a model of care: interpersonal/organisational relationships; holistic care; and collaborating with other services and training.
Conclusion: Despite end-of-life needs of this population being different to others, challenges include creating inclusive policies, sensitising staff to distinctive individual needs and training exchanges for staff working in both drug and alcohol services and palliative care.
Keywords: Palliative care; end-of-life care; substance related disorder; systematic review.