Development and Evaluation of a Staff Training Program on Palliative Care for Persons With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) face barriers and disparities at end of life. Among these barriers are limited educational opportunities and a paucity of targeted training materials on palliative care for staff who provide their day-to-day care. This paper reports on a three-phase project undertaken to develop, implement, and evaluate a palliative care curriculum and educational program that is responsive to the unique learning needs of staff providing services and supports for individuals with I/DD living in long-term care settings. Participants' ratings of their levels of preparation and confidence to provide palliative care improved from pretraining to posttraining. Posttraining use of materials and practice changes in palliative care occurred. When training is developed in partnership with the staff who will use these training resources, it has the potential to sustain its use and to alter the care practices to address the palliative care needs of persons with I/DD.