Background: What little evidence there is about the needs and outcomes of carers of those near the end of life suggest that these people experience considerable physical, psychological, social and financial challenges. One strategy to overcome this has been to offer planned and emergency respite care. However, the extent to which specialist palliative care services (SPCS) provide designated beds and the possible benefits of respite care to family carer welfare is not known.
Method: We conducted a review of the literature in which 5 electronic databases were searched: Web of Science, Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane Database Systems Review and Social Science Citation Index. The following criteria were used to select relevant papers:
• Adult respite services
• In English language
• In peer-reviewed journals
All papers were assessed independently by the two first authors who resolved disagreements through consensus. The search identified 260 papers, of which 28 related directly to adult SPCS.
Results: The papers reviewed were largely concerned with descriptive accounts of respite programmes, guidance on referral criteria to respite services or were evaluating the effects of respite on the patient rather than the impact of the carer. There were no empirical studies assessing the effects of Specialist Palliative Care respite intervention on carer well-being or outcomes.
Conclusions: There is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the efficacy of offering respite care to support carers of patients with advanced disease. We will therefore draw upon a wider literature on carers of adults with chronic disease to consider the impact of respite services and offer suggestions for future research.