Authors
2015
Excerpt
While 80% of Australians say that they would prefer to die at home only around 16% do. The Palliative Care Home Support Program funded by NSW Health began in Sept 2013 to address this gap. The PCHSP is a partnership between HammondCare, Sacred Heart Health Service & Calvary Healthcare Ltd, working with 7 Local Health Districts in NSW. The Program provides experienced care workers specifically trained in end of life care to support people & their families to facilitate dying at home. To enter the Program patients must have expressed a wish to die at home, be in the deteriorating or terminal phase of their illness & with a community palliative care team. The community team refers the patient to the PCHSP for a care package & qualified care workers support the patient & their family in their final days. Care is available on a 24/7 basis, with service provision determined by the patient, their family & the community palliative care team. The LHDs involved in this Program include metropolitan, rural & remote. Around 280 workers have so far been trained. The training covers Essence of palliative care & ethical issues in palliative & end of life care; Grief, loss & self-care; Pain & symptom management in last days; and Communication, delivered by health care professionals. More than 400 packages of care have been delivered to date & the home death rate is around 78%. The Program allows people to die in their own homes, with costly & unnecessary hospital admissions avoided.