157 Delivery of community palliative rehabilitation – a UK survey of models of care

<h3>Background</h3> Rehabilitation in palliative care focuses on helping individuals live as fully and independently as possible.¹ Community rehabilitation involves physiotherapists (PTs) and occupational therapists (OTs) working in various community settings. Limited research on community palliative rehabilitation models is leading to varied practices across the UK. Wosahlo &amp; Maddocks² highlighted differences in hospice service provision, but it is outdated, and the role of NHS services remains unclear. <h3>Aim</h3> To understand current UK models of adult community palliative rehabilitation delivery. <h3>Method</h3> An online cross-sectional survey of UK providers of adult community palliative rehabilitation <h3>Results</h3> Ninety-six organisations of 381 (25%) completed all or part of the questionnaire. Response rates were similar for hospices and NHS trusts. While PTs and OTs are employed by most providers (100% and 96% respectively), only 22% of organisations employ other types of allied health professionals within their rehabilitation services. Hospices are more likely to employ clinical specialist PTs (71% v 21%, p&lt;0.001) and OTs (54% v 30%p=0.009) than NHS Trusts. Cancer patients are most frequently seen, followed by COPD and advanced frailty. Hospices more often treat cancer (100% v 68%, p&lt;0.001) and COPD patients (100% v 59%, p&lt;0.001), while NHS services see more Parkinson’s (25% v 56% p=0.011) and dementia patients (50% vs 71%, p&lt;0.001). Home-based rehabilitation is the most common model, with hospices offering more on-site services (94% v 42% p&lt;0.001). Half of the organisations reported good integration with specialist palliative care. Integration is described as weaker with secondary care and third-sector organisations. <h3>Conclusions</h3> This study provides insights into the current landscape of rehabilitation services for palliative care patients in the UK. Findings highlight significant variations between hospice and NHS services, particularly in staffing patterns, patient populations, and service delivery models. <h3>References</h3> Tiberini, Richardson, 2015. Rehabilitative palliative care: Enabling people to live fully until they die. [online] available from: https://hukstage-new-bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-10/rehabilitative-palliative-care-enabling-people-to-live-fully-until-they-die.pdf Wosahlo P, Maddocks M. Benchmarking the provision of palliative rehabilitation within the hospice setting. Palliative Medicine 2015;<b>29</b>(5):p477–8.