Solomon Center Awarded Grant to Support Palliative Care GPS Initiative
The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Albert & Elaine Borchard Foundation’s Center on Law and Aging to support its Palliative Care Law and Policy GPS initiative. The Palliative Care GPS, a joint effort with the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is a publicly accessible and regularly updated database that tracks state policies on palliative care and related services.
Palliative care is specialized health care that helps patients and families through the symptoms and stresses of serious illness, resulting in better quality of life and more cost-effective health care spending. Despite tremendous evidence of its value and impact, access to palliative care remains quite limited. Barriers include misunderstanding of the services, inadequate reimbursement, and, most especially, a shortage of clinicians with the necessary knowledge and skills to provide this type of care. While state policymakers are increasingly interested in palliative care because of the potential to improve quality at a lower cost, not nearly enough attention has been paid to addressing and improving workforce development issues at the state level, according to the Solomon Center. With the added strain COVID-19 placed on the health care workforce overall, the center sees an urgent need to analyze and disseminate strategies that can expand the palliative care workforce.
This grant will support research addressing three key questions:
- What are the key barriers to increasing the palliative care workforce to meet the needs of persons with serious illness?
- What policies can states enact to address these barriers?
- What should the next steps be for advancing said policies?
Visit the Palliative Care GPS to learn more about the project, access the database, and stay current on updates.
