WA Primary Health Alliance is committed to supporting people to access safe, quality palliative care at home, and encourages health professionals to refresh their palliative care skills.
Palliative care services can enable people to do more of what they love in their community and enhance quality of life. Health professionals play an important role in end of life and palliative care to guide patient discussion to help them understand their options, services and support within the community.
The End of Life and Palliative Care Education and Training Framework has been developed for health professionals to refresh their skills in having these conversations. A series of webinars will be run by WA Department of Health in partnership with Palliative and Supportive Care Education (PaSCE) tailored for the needs of health professionals to prepare for an increase in advance care planning conversations in various care settings, run on the below days:
Health Service Providers, 27 October, 1:30pm – 2:15pm
General Practice, 10 November, 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Aged Care, 23 November, 1:30pm – 2:15pm
Event registration: https://www.pasce.com.au/seminar-main
The 2022 Palliative Care Summit, to be held 24 November 2022 at Optus Stadium, will also be a unique opportunity to learn about the priorities for quality palliative care in WA that is open to palliative care, aged care and community service professionals, researchers, policy makers and the wider community. Learn more.
The WA Department of Health ‘This is Palliative Care’ media campaign is further highlighting the importance of being aware of the components of palliative care within the community, with the purpose of changing community attitudes to acknowledge palliative care is more than just the final weeks or days of life.
WAPHA’s enhanced role in palliative care
Through the PHN Aged Care Program activity, Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care (GCfAHPC), WAPHA will support Western Australians, including older people, through improving access to safe, quality palliative care at home. GCfAHPC will facilitate greater community awareness of home care support, end-of-life care systems and services in primary health care.
A needs assessment is underway for GCfAHPC to develop initiatives that will make linkages across the sectors of aged care, primary care and palliative care to support access to services at the end-of-life, regardless of where someone lives.
GCfAHPC began as a pilot across 11 Primary Health Networks (PHNs) nationally and has now been expanded to all PHNs under the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care $18.3 billion aged care reform package to address pillar one (Home Care) and pillar three (Residential Aged Care Quality and Safety) reform priorities. Further information can be found at wapha.org.au/stakeholders/community-projects-and-stories/aged-care-program/