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The need for a collaborative approach to care is especially highlighted when working with terminally ill clients and their families in rural and remote areas. Clients/carers would shuffle through many loose pages of paper or flick back through heavily written in notebooks seeking records of their appointment dates and significant symptoms or events to enable them to recount their information. This was a familiar scenario when they had home visits, hospital admissions or medical appointments. As part of the Care Planning Sub-Program of the Local Palliative Care Grants Program, we developed a diary to provide all palliative care clients with a tool to enhance communication between the many care providers they would meet on their journey. The palliative care diary was developed following review of the pre existing breast cancer "my journey"diary and the Adelaide Hills Palliative Care Project diary.

The aim of the patient diary was to
o Reduce duplication of information required from service providers
o Provide a central location for recording health and treatment thus   enhancing client's control over care needs.

The diaries were given to cancer diagnosed and terminally ill clients over a 12 month period from a variety of distribution points (GP's, outreach staff and local palliative care service). Evaluation results and outcomes will be presented, focusing on the distribution strategy, client and health professional comments and collaborative lessons concerning country clients' care/management and the future of the palliative care client diary.