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Review
. 2025 Jul;39(7):750-764.
doi: 10.1177/02692163251338583. Epub 2025 Jun 14.

Enhancing the wellbeing of refugees living with advanced life-limiting illness in high-income resettlement countries: A systematic review

Merrington H  1 , Mahimbo A  1 , DiGiacomo M  2 , Roxas-Harris B  3 , Agar Mr  2 , Nathan S  3 , Hayen A  1 , Heywood Ae  3 , Dawson A  1
Affiliations
Review

Enhancing the wellbeing of refugees living with advanced life-limiting illness in high-income resettlement countries: A systematic review

Merrington H et al. Palliat Med. 2025 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Refugees experience barriers to health care after resettlement and may have distinct palliative care needs. There is no systematic guidance to support person-centred palliative care services that are responsive to refugees' needs and preferences.

Aim: To synthesis evidence regarding factors enhancing the wellbeing of refugees with advanced life-limiting illness, and their families, to inform palliative care in high-income resettlement countries.

Design: A systematic review of primary research studies. We applied a strength-based assets framework to the data extraction and synthesis and conducted a directed content analysis.

Data sources: We searched nine electronic databases.

Results: Ten of the 1006 studies identified were included in the review: two qualitative, one quantitative and seven case studies. We identified 17 assets that enhanced refugees' wellbeing: resilience, religion, spirituality, sense of identity, belonging, community connections, health and death literacy, acculturation, family and social support, social capital, community structures, access to funeral information, access to services, palliative care service approaches, and workforce capacity. Resilience was linked to identity and belonging, connections within cultural and religious networks, social capital and creating meaningful funeral rituals in resettlement. Palliative care workforce capacity, death literacy, acculturation, refugees' grief experiences and willingness to discuss and plan for death, influenced refugees' attitudes to palliative care, communication with staff about treatment, prognosis and spiritual care, and care outcomes.

Conclusions: Further research, co-designed with diverse refugee groups, is needed to inform palliative care service approaches, develop interventions to strengthen key assets and explore the nuanced role of social capital in end-of-life care.

Keywords: Refugees; bereavement; palliative care; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow chart.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Asset clusters and linkages in end-of-life care and bereavement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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