CareSearch Blog: Palliative Perspectives

A feature article in Palliative Care Australia's Palliative Matters publication

The Wesley Hospital Nurse Practitioner, Nicole Hutchinson tells us about the palliative care team's use of the caring@home package for carers to enable the discharge of patients who choose to be cared for at home in collaboration with the community palliative care team. 

As we move towards the end of the caring@home project in June 2020, services need to plan how to reproduce these resources on an ongoing basis. This will ensure carers can continue to be supported to help manage breakthrough symptoms safely using subcutaneous medicines for people who want to be cared for, and to die at home, if possible.

With more older Australians choosing to be cared for, and die at home, if possible, Level 3 & 4 Home Care Package providers need to ensure service provision meets the end-of-life and palliative care needs of their clients.

The caring@home resources can be used by providers to help deliver high-quality, person-centred, end-of-life care aligned to consumer wishes and the new Aged Care Quality Standards.

Jacqui Culver, Nurse Practitioner from Anglican Care tells us about Home Care Package providers successfully introducing and using the caring@home resources. 

Rachel Bilton-Simek, Palliative Education Coordinator from Clare Holland House in Canberra reports on her experience in implementing the caring@home resources into practice across the ACT. 

Professor Jen Tieman, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University and CareSearch Director writes about the National Palliative Care Stategy and nationally-funded palliative care projects and how these are enabling better palliative care.

Louise Goodwin, caring@home CNC, writes how leadership styles are important as we seek to initiate change in our workplaces. 

Wheatbelt Specialist Palliative Care Nurse Manager Brett Hayes writes about the Western Australian service using video conferencing to train carers to manage breakthrough symptoms in rural areas.