Working in multidisciplinary teams 

The adoption of a multidisciplinary team approach is recognised as optimal for palliative care delivery in the Primary Health Care setting.

Teamwork is key to providing palliative care within the Primary Health Care setting

Most home-based palliative care teams are led and proactively coordinated by the General Practitioner (GP), but team members vary and should be determined by patient needs and local availability of health care professionals. Along with the GP, other health professionals may be enlisted to complement the skills of the local team. This includes nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, other allied health professionals and the local pharmacist and with more complex patients, specialist palliative care services. Learn more about the activities individual health professionals undertake within the primary health care setting.

Palliative care activities and health professional roles

Understanding the individual health professional roles and what palliative care work they undertake within the primary health care setting will help to support GP’s in their current role, to provide end of life care which is person centred and best practice. While individual health professionals have specific services that they provide, many of them can undertake the same palliative care activity. Here we provide links to practical information within CareSearch for each of these key activities and health professional roles.

Common palliative care related activities according to care team role

Last updated 24 August 2021