Quick Links Online Palliative Medicine Handbook Translating and Interpreting Authority Prescribing GP Resources State Based Referrals

A pain diary for use by patients, from Palliative Care Australia

"Distress - treatment guidelines for patients" booklet for cancer patients, from the US. Includes the Distress Thermometer - a self-assessment tool for patients and caregivers, from NCCN

"Coping with Cancer" - online and printable patient information about symptoms and side effects of cancer from NCI (US)

Palliative care practice is evolving rapidly. The following resources offer up-to-date advice:

• Palliative Medicine Handbook Online book giving detailed, evidence based prescribing advice. Well referenced, with links to published guidelines where these exist. To use, connect to the site and click on Notes on Prescribing. Note that this handbook was written in the United Kingdom, and some medications listed may not be available in Australia.

• Therapeutic Guidelines - Palliative Care 
  Follow the link to order a copy or pay for online registration. Not freely available. This is the best available Australian consensus document on management of palliative care patients. It should be used as the starting point for symptom management. 

Finding out more

• Pain management in palliative care: an update (Australian Family Physician, October 2006)
• Palliating symptoms other than pain (Australian Family Physician, October, 2006).

Pain assessment tools can be downloaded from the Partners Against Pain website, including: 

• Visual Analogue Scale
• Faces pain scale for children 
• Memorial Pain Assessment Card

Symptom assessment tools from the Centre to Advance Palliative Care – for assessing and monitoring other palliative care symptoms:

• Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale
• Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale.

Delirium assessment - a simple tool for screening for delirium from the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing:

• Confusion Assessment Method

This page was created on 26 March 2007 and is due for review in March 2009