Barriers and facilitators influencing referral and access to palliative care for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions: a scoping review of the evidence

BACKGROUND: Palliative care is an essential component of children's health services but is accessed by fewer children than could potentially benefit.

AIM: Appraise the evidence to identify factors influencing referral and access to children's palliative care, and interventions to reduce barriers and improve referrals.

DESIGN: Scoping review following the six stages of the Arksey and O'Malley framework. Data were charted using an adapted version of the socioecological framework.

DATA SOURCES: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Library were searched for primary studies of any design and literature/systematic reviews. Studies reporting barriers/facilitators and interventions in relation to referral of children with a life-limiting condition to palliative care, in any setting, were included.

RESULTS: One hundred ninety five articles (primary qualitative and quantitative studies, reviews) were retained (153 reporting barriers/facilitators; 40 interventions; 2 both). Multiple factors were identified as barriers/facilitators: Individual level: underlying diagnosis, prognostic uncertainty, parental attitudes, staff understanding/beliefs; Interpersonal level: family support, patient-provider relationships, interdisciplinary communication; Organisational level: referral protocols, workforce, leadership; Community level: cultural norms, community resources, geography; Society level: policies and legislation, national education, economic environment, medication availability. Most of these factors were bi-directional in terms of influence. Interventions (n = 42) were mainly at the organisational level for example, educational programmes, screening tools/guidelines, workplace champions and new/enhanced services; one-third of these were evaluated.

CONCLUSION: Barriers/facilitators to paediatric palliative care referral are well described. Interventions are less well described and often unevaluated. Multi-modal approaches incorporating stakeholders from all levels of the socioecological framework are required to improve paediatric palliative care referral and access.