Psychosocial challenges in palliative care: Bridging the gaps using digital health

Abstract

Psychosocial health is a major palliative care concern globally. Patients and caregivers engaged in palliative care may experience deteriorated mental and social health conditions. Global evidence informs a high burden of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and other mental health problems among the palliative care populations. Those challenges aggravate the preexisting palliative care issues, such as lack of access and suboptimal quality of care. Palliative caregiving, both in the institutional and community settings, should be strengthened, incorporating psychosocial support for the patients and their caregivers. The recent advancements in digital health technologies have shown promising impacts in facilitating health communication, decision-making, and delivering psychosocial interventions using digital devices and platforms. Adopting evidence-based interventions can help the users to access mental health resources and communicate with each other to promote shared decision-making and management of health problems. Healthcare organizations and systems may explore opportunities to advance psychosocial care using digital technologies. Leveraging advanced technologies in palliative caregiving may require multifaceted research exploring potential barriers and opportunities at the user, institutional, and systems levels. Nonetheless, palliative care policies and health systems measures should be strengthened to develop and implement digital support systems that may improve psychosocial health and overall palliative care outcomes.