• Megan Armstrong, Caroline Shulman, Briony Hudson, Niamh Brophy, Julian Daley, Nigel Hewett, and Patrick Stone.
• Pathway Charity, London, UK.
• Palliat Med. 2021 Jun 1; 35 (6): 1202-1214.

BackgroundPeople residing in UK homeless hostels experience extremely high rates of multi-morbidity, frailty and age-related conditions at a young age. However, they seldom receive palliative care with the burden of support falling to hostel staff.AimTo evaluate a model embedding palliative specialists, trained as 'homelessness champions', into hostels for two half-days a month to provide support to staff and residents and facilitate a multidisciplinary approach to care.DesignAn exploratory qualitative design.Setting/ParticipantsFour homeless hostels in London, UK, including nine hostel managers/support staff and seven palliative care specialists (five nurses and two social workers).ResultsBenefits to introducing the model included: developing partnership working between hostel staff and palliative care specialists, developing a holistic palliative ethos within the hostels and improving how hostel staff seek support and connect with local external services. Challenges to implementation included limited time and resources, and barriers related to primary care.ConclusionThis is the first evaluation of embedding palliative care specialists within homeless hostels. Inequity in health and social care access was highlighted with evidence of benefit of this additional support for both hostel staff and residents. Considering COVID-19, future research should explore remote ways of working including providing in-reach support to homelessness services from a range of services and organisations.

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