OU research informs new end of life care guide

A new guide to support palliative and end of life care has been informed by OU researchers.

One of the OU’s key research themes: Living Well, empowers people to live well into later life.

Now, OU researchers have produced a new ‘Grab and Go Guide’to help improve palliative and end of life care.

The easy-to-follow guide draws from research into The Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: a national framework for local action (2021-2026) and will enable those working in the sector to better follow the ambitions set out in the framework and ensure everyone has access to quality end of life care.

The research, which was conducted by Dr Erica Borgstrom, Senior Lecturer, End of Life Care, at the OU’s Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, Dr Joanne Jordan, Dr Una St Ledger and Claire Henry MBE and funded by Marie Curie, looked at how successfully the framework was being embedded.

They discovered that local health and social care leaders were struggling to effectively translate the framework into action and therefore in some areas people were not accessing the quality end of life care they needed.

Using their findings they created Small Steps, Big Vision – Grab and Go Guide to support the realisation of the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care and the customisable Small Steps, Big Vision – Grab and Go Customisable Template to support the realisation of the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care to enable care providers to deliver accessible, responsive, effective, and personalised care at the end of life.

Dr Erica Borgstrom said: “By providing prompts and examples, our Grab-and-Go guide supports people to develop ideas for local action. We have already heard of people using it successfully in workshops to spark discussion and planning.”

Adrienne Betteley, Strategic Advisor for End-of-life Care, Macmillan Cancer Support said: “The research has triggered dialogue within, and between, Ambitions Partners member organisations and will continue to have a ripple effect on how the national framework can have even greater impact.”

The guide focuses on the eight foundations in the Ambitions framework which are recognised as being fundamental to the delivery of high-quality palliative and end of life care. It provides prompts to think about these foundations and as well as giving examples of good practice to facilitate improvements to care

In September the research team will be holding a webinar for anyone interested in learning more. Please contact the WELS Research Admin team for more information.