Sector news

PCQ has launched a short stop-motion animated film ‘The Cassette’ as part of its public campaign to encourage conversations around life-limiting illness and the fact that all of us will die one day. The film tells the story of a man who is visited by death and learns his time is almost up. His and his family’s responses create a ‘bittersweet story of mixed emotions that’s equally surprising, heartbreaking and uplifting’.

The UNSW National Palliative Care Project, ‘Improving palliative care services for people with intellectual disability’ provides a tailored model of palliative care for people with intellectual disability and supporting toolkits.

The project page has links to the: 

• Tailored model of palliative care for people with intellectual disability – A framework for the delivery of tailored, quality palliative care for people with intellectual disability in Australia.
• Toolkit for health professionals – Guidance on improving palliative care for people with intellectual disability to support the implementation of the model of care.
• Toolkit people with intellectual disability and supporters – A two-part document with information and linked resources to help people with intellectual disability get good palliative care.
• Easy Read Story – A story in Easy Read about a (fictional) person called Joe getting good palliative care.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has released guidance on using AI scribes in practice, warning that GPs will be liable for errors within the patient health record even if they are generated by the AI scribe and they must obtain consent from a patient to use an AI scribe in the consultation.

End of Life Law for Clinicians (ELLC) (296kb pdf) is a free online training program about end of life law. ELLC has updated its 13 online training modules to include new law and enhance interactive learning. Find out from ELLC’s 10,000th registrant (360kb pdf) how the modules can you support clinical practice. 

The Caring at Home Project has released the Community Palliative Care Resources Box. The new Resources Box is an update of the standard caring@home package for carers (first released in 2018) and contains a suite of resources that can be used by health professionals to teach families and carers who are supporting a dying person at home. The Resources Box is designed to be stored centrally and contains resources that can be used with several patients and families. caring@home resources are free of charge and applicable Australia-wide.

From 1 July, the new General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI) commenced, providing incentive payments to practices and general practitioners for delivering regular visits and care planning to older people living in residential aged care homes. This incentive requires MyMedicare registration and is voluntary for both consumers and general practices.