Bereavement support standards and bereavement care pathway for quality palliative care provision

摘要

Objective Provision of bereavement support is an essential component of palliative care service delivery. While bereavement support is integral to palliative care, it is typically insufficiently resourced, under researched and not systematically applied. Our aim was to develop bereavement standards to assist palliative care services to provide targeted support to family carers.MethodMixed methods study including: (1) literature review; (2) survey of palliative care service providers in Australia; (3) interviews with national (Australian) and international experts (4) key stakeholder workshops and (5) a modified Delphi – type survey.ResultsTen standards were developed along with a pragmatic care pathway to assist palliative care services with implementation of the standards.Significance of resultsThe bereavement standards and care pathway are a key initiative in the evolution of bereavement support provided by palliative care services. Future endeavours should refine and examine the impact of these standards. Additional research is required to enhance systematic approaches to quality bereavement care.