December newsletter

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This month

palliAGED in 2019
Consolidating CareSearch and palliAGED resources for aged care
The Dementia Australia Policy Team on the need to improve palliative care for people with dementia
E LDAC Project calls for expressions of interest for digital dashboard

palliAGED Updates

palliAGED in 2019

2019 has been another year of milestones for palliAGED. In our second year, we have added new content and developed new resource formats to further support our aged care sector to deliver best practice palliative care for older Australians at the end of life.

In addition to continuing to provide evidence based guidance for individuals, organisations, and practical toolkit developers, we have supported understanding within the sector by addressing the new Aged Care Quality Standards , Department of Health National Palliative Care Strategy (6.01MB pdf), Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, and others.

Our final newsletter for 2019 provides a snapshot of just some of our achievements this year, and they include:

1. Providing evidence based practical guidance

New Practice Tip Sheets for Careworkers and Nurses
Revised Symptoms and Medicines at the end of life
New Practice Forms on case conferences and self-care
In depth content on Intimacy and Sexuality
Resources for GPs
All the Latest Evidence
Consolidated aged care information and resources
Support for the 2019 RACGP Silverbook (991kb pdf) and the ELDAC Project among others

2. Supporting education and continuing professional development

3. Enabling understanding of key issues, policies, and useful resources

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to our accomplishments for this year, particularly our project partners, advisory group, Practice Tip Sheets expert review group, engagement project participants, and team members. We look forward to 2020 as we continue to collaborate with you to improve the quality of palliative care for all older Australians.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!

CareSearch and palliAGED consolidating
resources for aged care

Access to evidence and trustworthy resources is an important part of providing best practice palliative care for older Australians. Dr Katrina Erny-Albrecht from CareSearch discusses how the CareSearch/palliAGED information and resources for the aged care sector have now been consolidated into a single site to improve the ease of finding this information, and highlights where to go for information relevant to your needs.

Australia must improve palliative care
for people with dementia

Australia needs health and aged care staff who are appropriately skilled to deliver end of life and palliative care to people with dementia. The Dementia Australia Policy Team discusses how this can be achieved and provides some case examples.

Sector News

Call for expressions of interest for the ELDAC Digital Dashboard

The End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) Project has developed a prototype Digital Dashboard focusing on end of life indicators. The dashboard enables basic data collection around processes relevant to end of life care and provides reporting functions relating to these processes and activities. ELDAC is now calling for expressions of interest from aged care IT providers to build an equivalent dashboard within their own system. Successful applicants will be provided with a payment of up to $20,000 for the purpose of installing the dashboard. The online EOI must be submitted no later than 11.00am Central Standard Time Friday 6 December 2019.

PCA elects new Board Chair and Deputy Chair

At its Annual General Meeting and Board meeting, held November 2019, Palliative Care Australia (PCA) elected Prof Meera Agar, Professor of Palliative Medicine and a Professor at the IMPACCT (Improving Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care through Clinical Research and Translation) Centre at the University of Technology Sydney, as Chair of the PCA Board. Elected to the position of Deputy Chair was Helen Walker, Nurse Unit Manager of the Laurel Hospice at the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, who also serves as the Deputy Chair of Palliative Care South Australia and Deputy Chair of the Laurel Palliative Care Foundation. Read the PCA media release (100kb pdf) for more.