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The views and opinions expressed in our blog series are those of the authors and are not necessarily supported by CareSearch, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health.
Grief and loss often impact older adults more, which can increase their likelihood of developing mental illness. Felicity Chapman, Mental Health Clinician and Aged Care Specialist, discusses how working with grief is a key part of her counselling with older adults and demonstrates this through a client’s story.
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt our health and aged care services, there is a strong case for prioritising advance care planning (ACP) as part of the national response. Linda Nolte from Advance Care Planning Australia discusses how ACP could be better used to manage a surge in healthcare demand during the pandemic, with recommendations on how this might be achieved.
The ELDAC Care Model is a guide to help aged care staff and health professionals meet the needs of older Australians coming to the end of their life. In her blog, Quality, Risk and Compliance Officer and Coordinator of the ANHF-ELDAC Program, Yan Yau, discusses how the Australian Nursing Home Foundation (ANHF) is using the ELDAC Care Model to upskill staff in key areas relevant to end-of-life care.
Some patients do not receive adequate pain and symptom relief at the end of life, causing distress to patients, families and healthcare professionals. It is unclear whether undertreatment of symptoms occurs, in part, because of nurses' concerns about legal and/or disciplinary repercussions if the patient dies after medication is administered. Dr Katrin Gerber, Professor Lindy Willmott, Professor Ben White, and Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates from Queensland University of Technology discuss the findings from their research and interviews with nurses from different clinical backgrounds and settings about their concerns when providing pain and symptom relief to patients near the end of life.
palliAGED provides palliative care practice and evidence guidance for our aged care workforce. Susan Gravier and Robyn Dutschke, Research Associates from CareSearch and palliAGED, discuss the importance of psychosocial care in providing quality palliative care and how the new palliAGED pages on the topic were developed.