Background: Dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative life-limiting disease. The international literature indicates that patients with advanced dementia may benefit from palliative care provided during the end of life phase. However, evidence indicates that currently many fail to access such provision despite the increased recognition of their palliative needs. Aim: To investigate the factors influencing provision of palliative care services for people with advanced dementia. Method: A systematic review of mixed method studies written in English was undertaken. 11 electronic databases including Embase, Medline, PubMed, CINHAL and Scopus from 2008 to 2018 were searched.Narrative synthesis and content analysis were used to analyse and synthesise the data. Key findings:In total, 34 studies were included. 25 studies providing qualitative data, 6 providing quantitative data and 3 mixed methods studies. The findings identified organisational, healthcare professionals and patients related barriers and facilitators in provision of palliative care for people with advanced dementia from perspective of stakeholders across different care settings. The most commonly reported barriers are lack of skills and training opportunities of the staff specific to palliative care in dementia, lack of awareness that dementia is a terminal illness and a palliative condition, pain and symptoms assessment/management difficulties, discontinuity of care for patients with dementia and lack of co-ordination across care settings, difficulty communicating with the patient and the lack of advance care planning. Conclusions: Even though the provision of palliative care was empirically recognised as a care step in the management of dementia, there are barriers that hinder access of dementia patients to appropriate facilities. With dementia prevalence rising and no cure on the horizon, it is crucial that health and social care regulatory bodies integrate a palliative approach into their care using the identified facilitators to achieve optimal and effective palliative care in this population.
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