The Implementation of Palliative Home Care in Southeast Asian Countries: An Integrative Review

Abstract

In Asia where family caregiving is part of the culture, palliative home care becomes the most suitable service to keep patients close to their family and to reduce costs. There is a wide variety of palliative home care services due to different cultures and levels of involvement of the family. This review aims to explore the implementation of palliative home care in East and Southeast Asian countries. The articles reviewed in this study were obtained from 3 electronic databases: EbscoHost, PubMed, and Scopus. Journal articles that discussed palliative home care for patients with cancer in East and Southeast Asia countries were included. Review papers were excluded. Seven studies were used in the current review. In general, there are 6 services provided for palliative home care in this region, which are daily activity living care, planning and preparation for palliative home care, education and counseling, patients’ follow-up, symptom management, and direct care for family. Most of the programs involve family caregivers during the treatment. The palliative home care team consists of at least a doctor and a nurse. Symptom management is the most common service and direct care for family is the least offered palliative home care service in this region. Alleviating symptoms is one of the targets in palliative care, therefore involving family in symptom management for palliative home care is fundamental. Although caregiving is part of the culture, family members need to be supported to maintain their quality of life.