Advancing Health and Social Care in Community Settings

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2026 | Viewed by 49

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Medical Biology Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Rd, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK
Interests: home care; palliative care; advance care planning; quality of life; family support; care coordination

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to contribute to our Special Issue focused on research that advances the understanding and delivery of health and social care in community settings for adults with life-limiting conditions.

With rising rates of chronic life-limiting conditions, the need for integrated person-centred care closer to home has become an important component of health care systems.  Effective community-based care has the potential to improve individuals’ quality of life, reduce hospital admissions and support family carers.  Despite its potential, challenges continue to impact community-based care, including workforce capacity, gaps in communication and coordination, variable out-of-hours provision and support for unpaid carers.

In this Special Issue, we would like to highlight research that can help inform future implementation of health and social care in community settings for individuals with life-limiting conditions.  Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Experiences and support needs;
  • Barriers and facilitators to care delivery;
  • Scalable models of care;
  • Workforce development and training;
  • Communication and coordination of care;
  • Out-of-hours support provision;
  • Evaluation of interventions, services or implementation strategies.

Dr. Julie Doherty
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • community-based care
  • homecare
  • life limiting conditions
  • quality of life
  • palliative care
  • support needs
  • family carers

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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