WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) is pleased to announce that a second round of joint funding from the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the WA Department of Health has been awarded to support the commencement of the second phase of the National Partnership Agreement: Optimising Primary Care Coordination for People Living in Residential Aged Care Homes project.
The project will focus on enhancing the coordination of primary and palliative care for people living in residential aged care homes (RACH). WAPHA undertook an expression of interest process, and four aged care organisations were successful. The funding enables each organisation to employ a full-time registered nurse across two RACH sites to facilitate this work. WAPHA was delighted to kick off this project last month, with an induction day attended by key representatives from participating organisations.
Supporting the induction program were valued guest speakers from the Metropolitan Palliative Care Consultancy Service (MPaCCS), the Residential Care Line Outreach Service (RCL), the Palliative Aged Care Outcomes Program (PACOP), and the WA Department of Health. To support the project, each of the speakers shared their expertise related to the scope of services they provide and knowledge across palliative and end of life care.
The deliverables of this project include:
- Improved choice for residents approaching end of life through strengthened approaches to advance care planning.
- Implementation of evidence-base palliative care assessment tools (PACOP).
- Enhanced coordination of case conferencing and support of GPs to reduce administration burden.
- Strengthened approaches to anticipatory care planning including anticipatory medications.
- Reduction of avoidable emergency department presentations.
Aged care providers working with WAPHA to deliver these outcomes include Hall & Prior, Regis, Southern Cross Care, and Catholic Homes.
Feedback from participants on the day described the induction as valuable, insightful, well organised and informative.
If you have any questions about this project, please contact Project Officer Riccardo Seeber via email at Riccardo.seeber@wapha.org.au.
