Palliative Care for Older Adults with Multimorbidity in the Time of COVID 19.

Powell, Victoria D; Silveira, Maria J

Older adults with multimorbidity face difficulty accessing healthcare in the COVID era. Palliative care referral may be appropriate to provide additional support for symptoms, advance care planning, or caregiver distress. Since COVID, many palliative care providers have become more accessible through telehealth; however, older adults may have challenges with technology and require caregiver involvement to use. In the inpatient setting, palliative consult teams have assumed a greater role in daily communication with families who cannot visit the patient and in providing emotional support to front-line colleagues. Busy primary clinicians have embraced these efforts, but challenges remain to sustaining these changes.