Prerequisites for end-of-life care provision in the presence of the legally guaranteed right to palliative care in Kazakhstan

Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program 2021-2023

In the context of the global Covid-19 crisis of an unknown duration, the need to protect elderly and frail has never been more important. The number of affected individuals by the novel coronavirus is accelerating, placing an enormous pressure on the existing healthcare workforce, stretching the limited resources, drastically changing the economic profiles of the countries, and threatening to further shorten the lives of those most sick and elderly. There is an opportunity to reshape our healthcare system and to call for a better-coordinated care for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged patient population.
This project aims to identify the prerequisites for end-of-life care provision in the presence of the legally guaranteed right to palliative care in Kazakhstan by exploring perceptions of palliative care from the perspective of the stakeholders involved, including healthcare professionals, policy makers, health administrators and bereaved family members.
Specific objectives:
1) To explore the perspectives of different stakeholders including healthcare professionals, policy makers’ health administrators and family members of palliative patients on palliative care provision in Kazakhstan.
2) To evaluate the quality of dying and end-of-life care from the perspective of bereaved family members and caregivers in Kazakhstan.
3) To advocate the development of improvements within palliative care, as required with the recent transition to mandatory social health insurance system in Kazakhstan