What Evidence Exists to Support Palliative Allied Health Practice in Aged Care: A Scoping Review

Background: As our population ages, the demand for aged care services and palliative care is expected to increase. Allied health professionals have a diverse set of skills to offer in the management of older adults. This scoping review aimed to identify what evidence exists to support the best practice of allied health clinicians in palliative and aged care. Methods: Searches were conducted using broad keywords and MeSH headings with relevance to palliative, ageing and allied health care in the databases Ovid MEDLINE (R), CINAHL, EMCARE, INFORMIT, REHABDATA, PEDRO and SCOPUS, as well as the grey literature. Results: Only 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. A prominent finding was that regular exercise interventions delivered improved mobility, balance, sleep and quality of life outcomes when measured (n = 5). Broader allied health input and outcomes, such as nutrition, were not well described, other than to suggest an interprofessional approach contributed to health benefits where these were observed. Conclusions: The lack of research creates uncertainty about what excellent care looks like and how it can be measured, making it harder for allied health professionals to advocate for funded time in providing care at the end of life and leading to poorer outcomes for older adults.