Holistic common assessment

Effective holistic assessment processes are key to meeting the complex, wide-ranging and changing needs of people approaching the end of life.

Meeting the complex, wide-ranging and changing needs of people approaching the end of life requires:

• effective care co-ordination across boundaries
• strong communication
• a sound understanding of the individual’s needs, preferences and priorities for care.

Effective holistic assessment processes are key to this.

The National End of Life Care Programme have produced the Holistic common assessment of supportive and palliative care needs for adults requiring end of life care .  

This document provides guidance for holistic common assessment of the supportive and palliative care needs of adults requiring end of life care. It highlights five core areas or domains for holistic common assessment and sets out the content within each of these, so that teams can benchmark their local processes and tools. It sets out the main features of the process – including the who, when, where and how – of holistic common assessment.

It also highlights a range of existing assessment and planning tools, guidance and relevant policy, signposting to other resources where appropriate.