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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.
General practices provide ongoing care for a large number of patients with chronic, progressive, and eventually fatal illnesses, and so have an essential role in providing palliative care to patients and their families. Professor Josephine Clayton, Senior Staff Specialist Physician in Palliative Medicine and Associate Professor Joel Rhee, General Practitioner, discusses the Advance Project and how it aims to support general practices with the tools to identify people early who might need a palliative approach to their care and enables general practice teams to thoroughly assess the persons’ symptoms, concerns and priorities as well as the needs of their carers.
A significant feature of the 2019-20 Federal Budget for healthcare professionals, and patients and their carers was that it foreshadowed a shift in funding arrangements for chronic disease management within primary care for people aged over 70. Katharine Silk, Innovation and Integration Manager at Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association (AHHA) discusses how the federal budget may impact primary care nurses.
National Advance Care Planning Week is an annual initiative by Advance Care Planning Australia that encourages all Australians, regardless of their age or health status, to make their future health care preferences known. Jennifer Tieman Director of CareSearch discusses the importance of advance care planning and the need to start more conversations about death and dying.
Susan Gravier and Paul Tait from CareSearch and Southern Adelaide Palliative Services discuss the newly revised Symptoms and Medicines pages in the palliAGED Practice Centre and how this information and resources can help nurse practitioners and general practitioners in symptom management of older Australians in their last days of life.
Research suggests that health professionals may be afraid to provide palliative medicine because they are worried about whether it is lawful, particularly when a person is close to death. In their latest blog, Professor Ben White, Professor Lindy Willmott, Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates and Penny Neller from Queensland University of Technology discuss how the Australian law applies to providing palliative medicine at the end of life.