Exploring the Facilitators to and Barriers in Providing Outpatient Palliative Care to Refugees: A Mixed Methods Case Study

Despite palliative care being key to the right to health, there is a significant gap in equitable access. Due to lack of or delay in obtaining provincial health coverage, Canadian refugees face significant challenges in accessing community palliative care services and therefore, are more likely to have aggressive medical interventions at the end of life. The goal of this project is to explore the challenges refugees face when trying to access palliative care in the greater Hamilton, Ontario area. This project explores these questions by interviewing healthcare professionals in the community who provide palliative care and refugee patients who have palliative care needs. We will also look at administrative data that will provide a holistic understanding of palliative care access. This project ultimately hopes to shed light on the refugee experience in palliative care and begin the process of closing the inequitable gaps that exist for refugees accessing palliative care.