An Initiative of a Nursing Home Outreach Counseling to Improving Palliative Care in Eastern of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Outreach programs have been usually designed to strengthen institutional services. Counseling plays an important role in palliative care for people with life-limiting conditions through building relationships between staff, patients, and families. This study aimed to initiate a nursing home outreach counseling in palliative care based on the combination of Case Management and Advance Care Planning concepts, and to pilot the implementation of developed nursing home outreach counseling for residents. Phase Model recommended by Peipe was applied for this development. Comprehensive palliative care, waiting time for initial counseling, and cost-benefits were evaluated. Descriptive and frequency statistics were used for data analysis. This article reports the initiative of nursing home outreach counseling in palliative care by two case managers at five nursing homes in the eastern Saxony-Anhalt. Multidiscipline collaboration played a crucial role in outreach counseling in palliative care for the residents.