Palliative care services plan 2009-2016

South Australia’s Health Care Plan 2007-2016 identified an increasing demand for palliative care services in the coming years.1 Planning to meet this increase in demand presents a series of challenges which include the community’s expectations of access to quality end of life care services, particularly for the growing population of older people who increasingly are living alone and with fewer available family members able to provide support. Compounding this challenge, is a workforce that is itself ageing and retiring, and cannot be readily replaced.

South Australia has a well established and well regarded palliative care sector. Palliative care services for many years have championed holistic approaches to care and delivering integrated services across in-hospital and out-of-hospital settings.

In developing this new plan for palliative care, emerging knowledge about caring for the dying has been merged with the strengths of SA current palliative care service delivery program.

The Plan positions the work of palliative care services within the broader context of all the end of life care needed and provided across the state. It recognises and responds to both the growing demand for end of life care and a noticeable trend toward an increasing proportion of all end of life care being directed toward palliative care services.

Further, it promotes a shift in the level of reliance on palliative care services and directs palliative care services towards those people with the most complex end of life care needs. It expands the focus on building the capacity of generalist providers to ensure continuity and their active participation in care through to the end of life.

The Plan itself is structured in two sections. The main body of the plan sets out the strategies, key enablers and initiatives that SA Health will put in place over the next eight years to shape the future role and impact of palliative care services. Background and contextual detail to explain the decisions and steps planned have been incorporated in a series of Appendices.

South Australia. Department of Health. Palliative care services plan 2009-2016 (432kb pdf). Adelaide (SA): Department of Health; 2009.

© Government of South Australia