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What is Palliative Care?

Palliative care is specialised health care provided by experts with training and experience in supporting people living with a terminal illness and their families.

More information is available in the About Palliative Care booklet, and a wide range of information for general public, or specialist information for health professionals can be found.

What’s New?

Affirming Life:

Download here a guide for family and friends with loved ones in aged care on the palliative approach.

Dementia Dialogues Podcast

Dr Fran McInerney, Professor of Aged Care at ACU and Mercy Health, gave an excellent presentation about a project to enhance communication and care planning between residential aged care staff and family members of people with moderate to severe dementia. Click here to listen to the podcast and here to view the presentation slides.

Australian Government Senate Inquiry into Palliative Care

The Senate Community Affairs Committee has been asked to undertake an inquiry into the provision of palliative care in Australia. The Terms of Reference (click here to download) are extensive and provide a great opportunity to achieve further policy and funding commitments that will improve access to optimal palliative care across Australia. Submissions are invited. The Senate has been asked to report to Parliament by September 2012. For further information and updates visit the Senate Community Affairs Committee website.

PCOC Victoria / Tasmania Update – read the November 2011 update to find more about recent transformations.

Call for Applications for Postgraduate Palliative Care Scholarships (Victoria) – closing date 2 December 2011 click here for more information.

Australian Government Palliative Care Equipment Loan Scheme – information for publicly funded community palliative care services in Victoria.

A National Framework for Advance Care Directives

The Clinical, Technical and Ethical Principal Committee of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council has released this aspirational framework that aims to address issues of health and aged care decision-making where there is an advance care directive (ACD) in place. It deals with ACDs written by competent people, but not with oral directions or advance care plans written on behalf of others.

A Good Death in Aged Care

Listen to this podcast of a recent presentation to our Palliative Care in Aged Care Special Interest group by Diana Cooper, Project Officer, North East Valley Division of General Practice. Click here for the slide presentation.

Towards a Better Death

This excellent article by Mathew Dunkley was published in the Australian Financial Review on 9 July 2011 and is available here for downloading with their permission.

Australian Dialogues on Euthanasia

Internationally acclaimed ethicist and lawyer, Professor Margaret Somerville AM FRSC, has written extensively on the issue of euthanasia. Her Australian Dialogues (June-July 2011) consider the question of legalisation and provide a timely analysis of the ethical issues and implications.

Dying for Change

Videos taken at the Dying for Change Symposium held in Sydney, including a pres-entation by Charles Leadbeater, co-author of Dying for Change can be viewed at the Groundswell Project website: http://thegroundswellproject.com/?cat=59

Bringing our Dying Home – reports on an enlightening action research project in Sydney by Dr Debbie Horsfall, Kerrie Noonan, and Assoc. Prof. Mary Leonard.

New podcast: a community health promotion initiative to help people deal with issues of dying and death.

Speech to the Australian Senate by Senator Sue Boyce on 22 June 2011 calling for improved access to quality palliative care across Australia

Discussing Mortality – the more we talk about death, the less we fear it. Listen to this insightful and honest conversation recorded and broadcast by ABC Radio National on the National Interest Program during National Palliative Care Week. Transcript;Click here to access the 7-Part Video now available on You Tube.

National Palliative Care Week Media Releases

New Podcasts for National Palliative Care Week – Listen to the stories of bereaved carers from regional Victoria.

Great Leap Forward for Palliative Care in Victoria – links to our media releases on the Victorian Government’s allocation of $34.4m in new funding for palliative care in the 2011-12 State Budget.

Statement about Palliative Care to the Victorian Legislative Council 6 April 2011

What Lifts Your Spirit - a podcast for patients and families by Dr Bruce Rumbold

Nurturing the Spirit in Palliative Care – a podcast for providers of palliative care by Dr Bruce Rumbold

Palliative Care – The “Doing-it-in-Style” Kit; Poster

What is PEPA?

Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA) offers an ideal opportunity to learn from experienced specialist staff to enhance skills, knowledge and experience. More information on PEPA is available at Health Professionals – PEPA.