The role of the municipal welfare domain in palliative care: exploring the views of coordinators of Dutch regional palliative care networks

TL;DR

This study explores how palliative care in the Netherlands could better collaborate with local welfare services to support patients with incurable diseases and their caregivers.

Contribution

The study identifies coordinators of palliative care networks as potential catalysts for improving collaboration with the municipal welfare domain.

Findings

Coordinators consider collaboration with the welfare domain important but report significant regional variation in knowledge and engagement.

Current collaboration is limited and underexplored, despite its potential to improve patient care and sustainability.

Coordinators can act as key facilitators for better integration between healthcare and welfare services.

Abstract

Collaboration between the healthcare domain and welfare domain could benefit people confronted with an incurable disease residing at home and their informal caregivers, but little is known about this collaboration regarding palliative care. There are regional palliative care networks in the Netherlands, supporting interdisciplinary integrated palliative care; each network has a network coordinator who is a primary liaison for the network and who has an overview of palliative care services and activities in the region. However, the view of the networks on the role of the welfare domain and collaboration with the welfare domain in the field of palliative care is unknown.

The aim of this study is to explore the awareness of professionals for the social dimension of palliative care and to explore how collaboration between the healthcare domain and the Dutch municipal welfare domain, in the field of palliative care, can be improved.

Focus group research.

In 2022, six focus groups and two individual interviews were held with 30 coordinators of regional palliative care networks in the Netherlands.

This study showed that coordinators of regional palliative care networks consider collaboration with the welfare domain to be important. There are major differences between the regional palliative care networks regarding knowledge about and collaboration with the welfare domain. Coordinators themselves can function as catalysts for collaboration between palliative care and the welfare domain.

In the Netherlands, collaboration between the welfare domain and the healthcare domain in the field of palliative care is limited and differs considerably between regions. The Dutch municipal welfare domain is relevant for a large group of people confronted with an incurable disease, but it does not provide them with tailored services. Collaboration between palliative care and the municipal welfare domain has great potential, both on the patient level and on the level of the sustainability of palliative care, but it currently seems underexplored.

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