“Meet Me Where I Am”: Removing Barriers to End-of-Life Care for Homeless Veterans and Veterans Without Stable Housing

Abstract

Objective:

To describe the barriers and facilitators of end-of-life (EOL) care for Veterans without stable housing (VWSH) as perceived by Veterans at 1 VA medical center and EOL care staff.

Design:

Qualitative descriptive study. Secondary applied content analysis of data from interviews and focus groups in our parent study.

Setting/Participants:

VA Puget Sound Health Care System and VWSH.

Results:

The core emergent theme in the words of Veterans and health-care workers was “meet me where I am,” a statement of what many Veterans want most from their health care. Barriers and facilitators often reflected the presence or absence of important factors such as relationship and trust building, care coordination and flexibility, key individuals and services, and assistance in navigating change.

Conclusions:

These findings suggest that to improve health care for VWSH, interventions must be multifaceted, including a suite of support services, flexibility and creative problem-solving, and adaptations in communication approaches. The authors offer specific recommendations for improving EOL care for VWSH based on these findings.