ArticleBMC palliative care2025
The intersections of palliative care and homelessness in social policy: A content analysis of Canadian policy documents.
Article in BMC palliative care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPalliative care for people experiencing homelessness (PEH) is a social issue of increasing importance. Policymakers are best positioned to lead societal responses by naming the issue in policy documents, allocating resources to address palliative care for PEH, and creating frameworks or guiding principles to inform action. This study aims to examine how, if at all, policymakers in Canada are identifying and addressing the issue of palliative care for diverse PEH in policies and frameworks governing the palliative care and/or homelessness sectors.
methodsWe conducted a content analysis of 75 Canadian policy documents governing palliative care or homelessness for the presence of discussion of homelessness (in palliative care documents) and end-of-life (in homelessness documents). The level of discussion (no, indirect, minimal, significant), the jurisdictional level (municipal/city, provincial/territorial, national), and mention of intersecting identities were also recorded.
resultsOf the 75 documents analyzed, 42 contained no discussion of palliative care and homelessness, and only five contained significant discussions by explicitly identifying barriers, describing unique needs, and identifying competencies or innovative practices to promote access and inclusion. All significant or national level discussions were palliative care documents. Intersectional discussions of palliative care for PEH were found in 9 of 75 of documents, with ethnicity and Indigeneity mainly mentioned in palliative care documents, and older age and gender mentioned solely in homelessness documents.
conclusionsThere are critical gaps in Canadian policy documents governing palliative care and homelessness. Most policy documents fail to name or address the issues, with the gap most pronounced in homelessness documents, which contained no national level or significant discussions about end-of-life. Additionally, policy documents from both sectors seldomly discussed the unique needs and barriers of older, racialized, and/or gender-marginalized PEH at end-of-life. While competencies and service level solutions appear to be emerging within palliative care policies at the national level, policymakers from both sectors and across all levels of government must collaborate to address the unique needs of diverse PEH at end-of-life.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.