End of life care for people with severe mental illness (the MENLOC study)

We are identifying and bringing together research and other evidence in the area of end of life care for people with severe mental illness.

These people will have an additional diagnosis of advanced, incurable, cancer and/or end-stage major organ failure, and who are likely to die within the next 12 months.

Methods

We are conducting a comprehensive and transparent search for research and other types of information using multiple electronic databases covering health, social care and psychological literature. We are using additional methods to identify research and other relevant literature which might not be found through database searching, including documents not published in academic journals. We are assessing the quality of each piece of research evidence, and will produce a comprehensive, thematic, synthesis.

Our team includes people with backgrounds as academics, mental health and end of life professionals, information specialists, service users and carers. We are also working with a stakeholder advisory group, who will help us throughout our study and advise us on publicising our findings in accessible ways.

We will clearly state the implications of our findings for the commissioning, provision and improvement of NHS (and other) care, and make recommendations for future research.

Funding

This project is funded by:

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme

Research lead