Palliative care needs in Malawi: Care received by people living with HIV

Expectations and barriers to the utilization of specialist palliative care services among persons living with cancer in Ghana: an exploratory qualitative study

Background

The need for palliative care among patients living with cancer is increasing globally. This need is far greater in resource-constrained settings like Ghana where there is a high unmet need for palliative care services. Consequently, there are lapses in the current palliative care regime, thus, resulting in suboptimal utilization.

Objective

The study aims to explore patients living with cancer's expectations of palliative care services and examine the barriers that impede palliative care utilization.

Design

Descriptive exploratory qualitative design.

Methods

A total of 15 patients living with cancer and receiving treatment in a tertiary health facility were purposively sampled to participate in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data were transcribed and inductively analysed following Collaizi's qualitative analysis framework.

Results

From the analysis, the findings were grouped under two main categories: perceived expectations and barriers to utilizing palliative care. The participants expected to receive meaningful communication about their condition and prognosis; they also expected to be actively involved in palliative care decision-making. Regarding the barriers, the following themes emerged: financial constraints, unfavourable health appointment schedules, problems with the distance to the health facility, poor referral and follow-up from oncology specialists and being unaware of the availability of palliative care services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a need to actively involve patients and their families in all decision-making along the continuum of palliative care service delivery. The study underscores the need for Ghana to implement an integration of palliative care services in primary healthcare facilities to avert the challenges that distance to tertiary healthcare facilities poses to palliative care utilization. Service providers must implement awareness programmes to enable patients to better comprehend palliative care services.

Promoting Well-being Among Informal Caregivers of People With HIV/AIDS in Rural Malawi: Community-Based Participatory Research Approach

BACKGROUND

People living with HIV/AIDS and their informal caregivers (usually family members) in Malawi do not have adequate access to patient-centered care, particularly in remote rural areas of the country because of the high burden of HIV/AIDS, coupled with a fragmented and patchy health care system. Chronic conditions require self-care strategies, which are now promoted in both developed and developing contexts but are still only emerging in sub-Saharan African countries.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to explore the effects of the implementation of a short-term intervention aimed at supporting informal caregivers of people living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi in their caring role and improving their well-being. The intervention includes the dissemination of 6 health advisory messages on topics related to the management of HIV/AIDS over a period of 6 months, via the WhatsApp audio function to 94 caregivers attending peer support groups in the rural area of Namwera.

METHODS

We adopted a community-based participatory research approach, whereby the health advisory messages were designed and formulated in collaboration with informal caregivers, local medical physicians, social care workers, and community chiefs and informed by prior discussions with informal caregivers. Feedback on the quality, relevance, and applicability of the messages was gathered via individual interviews with the caregivers.

RESULTS

The results showed that the messages were widely disseminated beyond the support groups via word of mouth and highlighted a very high level of adoption of the advice contained in the messages by caregivers, who reported immediate (short-term) and long-term self-assessed benefits for themselves, their families, and their local communities.

CONCLUSIONS

This study offers a novel perspective on how to combine community-based participatory research with a cost-effective, health-oriented informational intervention that can be implemented to support effective HIV/AIDS self-care and facilitate informal caregivers' role.

Advanced HIV disease and health-related suffering-exploring the unmet need of palliative care

With more than 38 million people living with HIV worldwide, the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy ensures nearly 28 million of them receive regular treatment. However, a substantial number of deaths still occur every year from AIDS-related complications, with approximately 680 000 deaths in 2021. Of the estimated 56·8 million people globally in need of palliative care in 2020, only 7 million can access services. Providing palliative care services can help alleviate health-related suffering, such as pain and disease-related symptoms, and improve wellbeing. This Viewpoint discusses the unrealised potential of palliative care in individuals with advanced HIV disease. Key areas of training for health-care workers include appropriate sensitisation, training in palliative care, and effective communication. Advance care planning supports both the individual and their family and is therefore of crucial importance. Integration of palliative care in HIV programmes is needed to address health-related suffering, particularly for advanced HIV disease.

Atuação do Enfermeiro em Cuidados Paliativos na Atenção Primária à Saúde: Revisão Integrativa

Introdução: A atuação da enfermagem ao indivíduo em cuidados paliativos (CP) na Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS) visa a promover a qualidade de vida dos indivíduos e da sua família como garantia da assistência integral, para um cuidado humanizado e digno, melhorando a maneira de enfrentar a doença e minimizando o sofrimento. Objetivo: Analisar e sintetizar a produção científica relacionada à assistência do enfermeiro ao indivíduo em CP nas APS. Método: Revisão integrativa da literatura realizada nas bases de dados Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE) via PubMed, Base de Dados de Enfermagem (BDENF) e Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), utilizando os descritores: Palliative Care, Nursing e Primary Health Care. Resultados: Foram analisados 17 artigos após seleção sistemática, sintetizados em um quadro com seus principais resultados e agrupados em três categorias: capacitação em CP: uma barreira para atuação do enfermeiro na APS; percepções, experiências e práticas dos enfermeiros nos CP; o papel do enfermeiro na equipe multiprofissional de CP. Conclusão: Notou-se que os enfermeiros possuíam conhecimento superficial acerca dos CP na APS, evidenciando a necessidade de educação continuada para promover a sua atuação em CP. Ademais, estudos com maior rigor metodológico com o foco no enfermeiro como agente disseminador da prática são necessários.

Assessment of Palliative Care Needs among People Living with HIV/ AIDS Attending Antiretroviral Therapy Outpatient Department in an Urban Slum of Mumbai: A Mixed Method Study

Objectives

According to WHO, Palliative care is an essential component of a comprehensive package of care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Lack of palliative care results in untreated symptoms that hamper an individual's ability to perform daily activities. The study aimed to explore the perceived Palliative care needs of People Living With HIV/AIDS and the association between socio- demographic profile with Palliative care needs.

Materials and Methods

It was a mixed method study conducted over 2 months in November and December 2020 at Link ART OPD of Urban Health Training Centre in Mumbai. Out of 120 registered patients,15 patients were selected for in-depth interview by purposive sampling. The remaining 105 patients were selected for quantitative part of the study by complete enumeration method. For Qualitative part, Thematic analysis of the transcripts was done. Data were coded using Microsoft word comment feature. Themes and categories were drawn from it. For Quantitative part, Data analysis was done using SPSS version 22. Chi- square test was applied to find out the association between socio- demographic profile & palliative care needs. P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

The major themes identified were poor attitude towards the disease, lack of support and role of counselling. The common palliative care needs identified were need for financial assistance, family support and psychological support.

Conclusions

Palliative care should be introduced early in the care process by a team of providers who is aware of the patient's history and requirements.

What constitutes a palliative care need in people with serious illnesses across Africa? A mixed-methods systematic review of the concept and evidence

BACKGROUND

Clarity on what constitutes a palliative care need is essential to ensure that health systems and clinical services deliver an appropriate response within Universal Health Coverage.

AIM

To synthesise primary evidence from Africa for palliative care needs among patients and families with serious illness.

DESIGN

We conducted a mixed methods systematic review with sequential synthesis design. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42019136606) and included studies were quality assessed using Mixed Method Appraisal Tool.

DATA SOURCES

Six global literature databases and Three Africa-specific databases were searched up to October 2020 for terms related to palliative care, serious illnesses and Africa. Palliative care need was defined as multidimensional problems, symptoms, distress and concerns which can benefit from palliative care.

RESULTS

Of 7810 papers screened, 159 papers met eligibility criteria. Palliative care needs were mostly described amongst patients with HIV/AIDS (n = 99 studies) or cancer (n = 59), from East (n = 72) and Southern (n = 89) Africa. Context-specific palliative care needs included managing pregnancy and breastfeeding, preventing infection transmission (physical); health literacy needs, worry about medical bills (psychological); isolation and stigma, overwhelmed families needing a break, struggling to pay children's school fees and selling assets (social and practical needs); and rites associated with cultural and religious beliefs (spiritual).

CONCLUSIONS

Palliative care assessment and care must reflect the context-driven specific needs of patients and families in Africa, in line with the novel framework. Health literacy is a crucial need in this context that must be met to ensure that the benefits of palliative care can be achieved at the patient-level.

Barriers to the Provision and Utilization of Palliative Care in Africa: A Rapid Scoping Review

Palliative care (PC) has continued to be less available, underutilized, and unintegrated in many of the healthcare systems, especially in Africa. This scoping review synthesized existing published papers on adult PC in Africa, to report the barriers to PC and to assess the methodologies used in these studies. Eight electronic databases and Google Scholar were searched to identify relevant studies published between 2005 and 2018. Overall, 42 publications (34 empirical studies and 9 reviews) that reported issues related to barriers to adult PC were selected. Three themes identified were individual-level, system-level, and relational barriers. The studies reviewed predominantly utilized cross-sectional and retrospective study design, underscoring the need for more studies employing qualitative design. Findings highlight the need for health education, training opportunities, more funding, communication, and timely referral. Future works could focus on underlying factors to these barriers and ethno-religious perspectives to PC in Africa.

Cervical cancer screening - The challenges of complete pathways of care in low-income countries: Focus on Malawi

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally, with approximately 580,000 new diagnoses in 2018. Approximately, 90% of deaths from this disease occur in low- and middle-income countries, especially in areas of high HIV prevalence, and largely due to limited prevention and screening opportunities and scarce treatment options. In this overview, we describe the opportunities and challenges faced in many low- and middle-income countries in delivery of cervical cancer detection, treatment and complete pathways of care. In particular, drawing on our experience and that of colleagues, we describe cervical screening and pathways of care provision in Malawi, as a case study of a low-resource country with high incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer. Screening methods such as cytology – although widely used in high-income countries – have limited relevance in many low-resource settings. The World Health Organization recommends screening using human papillomavirus testing wherever possible; however, although human papillomavirus primary testing is more sensitive and detects precancers and cancers earlier than cytology, there are currently costs, infrastructure considerations and specificity issues that limit its use in low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organization accepts the alternative screening approach of visual inspection with acetic acid as part of ‘screen and treat’ programmes as a simple and inexpensive test that can be undertaken by trained health workers and hence give wider screening coverage; however, subjectivity and variability in interpretation of findings between providers raise issues of false positives and overtreatment. Cryotherapy using either nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide is an established treatment for precancerous lesions within ‘screen and treat’ programmes; more recently, thermal ablation has been recognized as suitable to low-resource settings due to lightweight equipment, short treatment times, and hand-held battery-operated and solar-powered models. For larger lesions and cancers, complete clinical pathways (including loop excision, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and palliative care) are required for optimal care of women. However, provision of each of these components of cancer control is often limited due to limited infrastructure and lack of trained personnel. Hence, global initiatives to reduce cervical mortality need to adopt a holistic approach to health systems strengthening.

How have researchers defined and used the concept of 'continuity of care' for chronic conditions in the context of resource-constrained settings? A scoping review of existing literature and a proposed conceptual framework

Background

Within the context of the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally, there is limited evidence on how researchers have explored the response to chronic health needs in the context of health policy and systems in low- and middle-income countries. Continuity of care (CoC) is one concept that represents several elements of a long-term model of care. This scoping review aims to map and describe the state of knowledge regarding how researchers in resource-constrained settings have defined and used the concept of CoC for chronic conditions in primary healthcare.

Methods

This scoping review adopted the modified framework for interpretive scoping literature reviews. A systematic literature search in PubMed was performed, followed by a study selection process and data extraction, analysis and synthesis. Extracted data regarding the context of using CoC and the definition of CoC were analysed inductively to identify similar patterns; based on this, articles were divided into groups. MaxQDA was then used to re-code each article with themes according to the CoC definition to perform a cross-case synthesis under each identified group.

Results

A total of 55 peer-reviewed articles, comprising reviews or commentaries and qualitative or quantitative studies, were included. The number of articles has increased over the years. Five groups were identified as those (1) reflecting a change across stages or systems of care, (2) mentioning continuity or lack of continuity without a detailed definition, (3) researching CoC in HIV/AIDS programmes and its scaling up to support management of NCDs, (4) researching CoC in NCD management, and (5) measuring CoC with validated questionnaires.

Conclusion

Research or policy documents need to provide an explicit definition of CoC when this terminology is used. A framework for CoC is suggested, acknowledging three components for CoC (i.e. longitudinal care, the nature of the patient–provider relationship and coordinated care) while considering relevant contextual factors, particularly access and quality.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12961-019-0426-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.