For YOUR peace of mind :-) You do not have to face this time alone...
palliAGED is a new smartphone app to help provide information that will help your GP manage and care for YOU in those final stages of your life.
Most Australians want to be cared for and to die at home, if possible. As most deaths are expected, there is the opportunity to plan and deliver care in the place where a person coming to the end of their life wants to be cared for. General practitioners (GPs) have a central role in planning and providing this care. However, GPs treating older patients living in residential care or at home may have limited experience in palliative care.
Welcome to Decision Assist
To enhance the provision of palliative care and advance care planning services to the aged nationally, the Australian Government has funded the Specialist Palliative Care and Advance Care Planning Advisory Services (Decision Assist) Project.
The project is managed by a consortium of national health and aged care organisations, including Respecting Patient Choices (lead agency), Palliative Care Australia, CareSearch, the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine, Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), and Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA).
There are several aspects to the project:
Page updated 11 March 2015
Fact Sheet
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Palliative Services in Australia
The goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of life of patients with an active, progressive disease that has little or no prospect of a cure. With the growth and ageing of Australia's population, and an increase of chronic and generally incurable illnesses, the types of patient groups requiring palliative care has widened.
15 September 2020
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A Hospice is performing Palliative Care in that the person is cared for until death thru interventions of pain management.
Palliative care is one step below Hospice, which requirements stipulate that the person has only 6 months to live. Palliative care implements almost all of the same philosophy. No more interventions, especially those requiring additional testing or lifesaving efforts like feeding tubes be employed. Additional specialist are not called in and a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) is put in place.
For people facing certain degenerative diseases with no hope of a cure and an ever decreasing quality of life, palliative care is a gentle approach to providing support that provides comfort to both the care receiver and the caregiver. Have a talk with the person's physician about putting the program in place. The doctor usually has to write a referral for that to happen so that the appropriate home health care can be put in place.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nurses and personal careworkers provide direct care to millions of older Australians. To support them in caring for older people approaching the end of life, palliAGED has developed a series of practical tip sheets focusing on commonly encountered issues.
https://www.palliaged.com.au/tabid/5544/Default.aspx
Older people will commonly have co-morbidities. Nurses and careworkers will increasingly provide care in the areas of palliative care, dementia, wound management and mental health (24.6MB pdf).
Providing end-of-life care for the elderly is a complex responsibility and task. Among other things, it requires the person providing it to understand and recognise the most common care issues expected when someone has a life-limiting illness or is approaching the end of life.
Planning and working as a team - as well as taking time to reflect, review and continuously improve practices - are also crucial. To be useful, resources need to be fit for purpose. They need to be trustworthy and based on evidence. They need to recognise that the knowledge, skills and scope of practice are different for careworkers and for nurses. And they need to be practical and helpful for busy staff.
The new palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets are the latest addition to our suite of evidence-based and free resources. Both sets of Nurse and Careworker Practice Tips Sheets aim to support and improve care for older Australians. The Practice Tips Sheets are also valuable for training and professional development in aged care. It can be used for independent learning, in house or team training, or as an additional resource for educators.
Download the palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets today.
15 March 2019
- - - - - - - - - - -
And a look at https://www.caring.com/caregivers/starting-the-conversation/ in those last years/months of your loved one's life. The things you wish you had said, the hugs you wish you had had; and the sharing of feelings and experiences you never sort of got around to talking about - until now...
palliAGED is a new smartphone app to help provide information that will help your GP manage and care for YOU in those final stages of your life.
Most Australians want to be cared for and to die at home, if possible. As most deaths are expected, there is the opportunity to plan and deliver care in the place where a person coming to the end of their life wants to be cared for. General practitioners (GPs) have a central role in planning and providing this care. However, GPs treating older patients living in residential care or at home may have limited experience in palliative care.
Welcome to Decision Assist
To enhance the provision of palliative care and advance care planning services to the aged nationally, the Australian Government has funded the Specialist Palliative Care and Advance Care Planning Advisory Services (Decision Assist) Project.
The project is managed by a consortium of national health and aged care organisations, including Respecting Patient Choices (lead agency), Palliative Care Australia, CareSearch, the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine, Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), and Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA).
There are several aspects to the project:
- A telephone based advice service has been established to enable delivery of advisory services to general practitioners and aged care staff in all areas of Australia, 24 hours / day, 7 days / week via a national 1300 668 908. This number will route calls to a specialist palliative care or an advance care planning operator. Callers will be referred to relevant existing resources within their local area (where these exist), or will be provided with the required advice where a service gap exists.
- The implementation of the Decison Assist Advisory Service includes the provision of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.
- A strong focus on enhancing the skills of aged care staff and GPs through specialised education and resources.
- The implementation of strategies to increase linkages between aged care services and palliative care services.
- New technologies will be employed to ensure GPs have convenient and ready access to specialist medical advice. This includes using guidance on telehealth to overcome geographic isolation and difficulty accessing specialist palliative care advice and support. Other innovative technologically based elements will include a smartphone App for GPs to enable quick access to clinical guidelines and medication advice.
Page updated 11 March 2015
Fact Sheet
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Palliative Services in Australia
The goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of life of patients with an active, progressive disease that has little or no prospect of a cure. With the growth and ageing of Australia's population, and an increase of chronic and generally incurable illnesses, the types of patient groups requiring palliative care has widened.
15 September 2020
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A Hospice is performing Palliative Care in that the person is cared for until death thru interventions of pain management.
Palliative care is one step below Hospice, which requirements stipulate that the person has only 6 months to live. Palliative care implements almost all of the same philosophy. No more interventions, especially those requiring additional testing or lifesaving efforts like feeding tubes be employed. Additional specialist are not called in and a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) is put in place.
For people facing certain degenerative diseases with no hope of a cure and an ever decreasing quality of life, palliative care is a gentle approach to providing support that provides comfort to both the care receiver and the caregiver. Have a talk with the person's physician about putting the program in place. The doctor usually has to write a referral for that to happen so that the appropriate home health care can be put in place.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nurses and personal careworkers provide direct care to millions of older Australians. To support them in caring for older people approaching the end of life, palliAGED has developed a series of practical tip sheets focusing on commonly encountered issues.
https://www.palliaged.com.au/tabid/5544/Default.aspx
Older people will commonly have co-morbidities. Nurses and careworkers will increasingly provide care in the areas of palliative care, dementia, wound management and mental health (24.6MB pdf).
Providing end-of-life care for the elderly is a complex responsibility and task. Among other things, it requires the person providing it to understand and recognise the most common care issues expected when someone has a life-limiting illness or is approaching the end of life.
Planning and working as a team - as well as taking time to reflect, review and continuously improve practices - are also crucial. To be useful, resources need to be fit for purpose. They need to be trustworthy and based on evidence. They need to recognise that the knowledge, skills and scope of practice are different for careworkers and for nurses. And they need to be practical and helpful for busy staff.
The new palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets are the latest addition to our suite of evidence-based and free resources. Both sets of Nurse and Careworker Practice Tips Sheets aim to support and improve care for older Australians. The Practice Tips Sheets are also valuable for training and professional development in aged care. It can be used for independent learning, in house or team training, or as an additional resource for educators.
Download the palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets today.
15 March 2019
- - - - - - - - - - -
And a look at https://www.caring.com/caregivers/starting-the-conversation/ in those last years/months of your loved one's life. The things you wish you had said, the hugs you wish you had had; and the sharing of feelings and experiences you never sort of got around to talking about - until now...