TY - JOUR T1 - State-wide telephone support: enhanced palliative care service delivery JF - BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care JO - BMJ Support Palliat Care DO - 10.1136/bmjspcare-2021-003264 SP - bmjspcare-2021-003264 AU - Brian Le AU - Evelien Rosens AU - Esther McMillan-Drendel AU - David Marco AU - Theresa Williamson AU - Jennifer Philip Y1 - 2021/07/27 UR - http://spcare.bmj.com/content/early/2021/07/26/bmjspcare-2021-003264.abstract N2 - Palliative care maximises the quality of life for people with life-limiting disease and supports end of life care. It prevents or reduces suffering by providing effective pain management and relief from distressing symptoms. It also addresses needs of carers, family and friends during the patients’ illness and in case of bereavement.1People receiving palliative care require fewer and shorter hospitalisations and less visits to emergency departments. Receiving palliative care at home reduces the need for hospital-based care, which can be associated with cost savings for the health system.1The World Health Assembly stressed the need for countries to ensure access to palliative care for all patients in need by integrating palliative care into their healthcare systems.1 However, significant barriers to accessing palliative care remain, even in countries with high-resource systems in which palliative care services are at an advanced level of integration.1 2In high-resource countries barriers to use of palliative care are usually not financial or structural, but may lie more in cultural, social and informational domains. Some examples of such barriers may include a lack of awareness of the need and purpose of palliative care, lack of knowledge of palliative care among healthcare … ER -