Evaluation of the integration of palliative care in a fragile setting amongst host and refugee communities

Palliative care integration in primary care health and community systems is needed in fragile, conflict affected and vulnerable settings.

• Refugee and host populations suffer from many dimensions of distress that could be addressed by culturally appropriate palliative care and support.

• Community and health centre workers in primary care working in fragile, conflict affected and vulnerable settings can be trained to integrate a culturally appropriate compassionate person-centred palliative care approach.

• Community engagement, participation and ownership is crucial in ensuring effective and culturally competent palliative care.

• The palliative care approach should be integrated in national policy documents and training manuals for healthcare workers in the community and health centres, including within fragile, conflict affected and vulnerable communities.

• Rapid Participatory Appraisal can identify many broad health needs in a community, and inform the development of culturally acceptable interventions. It may also give a structure to evaluate outcomes of palliative care initiative in the community.