The Greater Choices for At Home Palliative Care project recently completed a successful pilot with three general practices, Burslem Medical Centre, Plaza Medical Centre, and Quinns Mindarie Super Clinic. Each practice identified a Palliative Care Champion who focused on implementing advance care planning as part of routine health assessments. Through baseline audits and quality improvement activities, these practices were able to strengthen their advance care planning and palliative care practices.
Policies and processes were provided to support advance care planning implementation, resulting in 93 completed advance care planning documents uploaded to My Health Record. An impressive response rate to the Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care Learning Needs Analysis Survey also led to the development of a six-part webinar series which will commence in October.
Following the success of the pilot, the initiative has been extended to include six new practices across the state. These practices will implement advance care planning as part of caring for people with complex chronic disease. Additionally, three Champion practices will trial a model of supportive care for people approaching the end of their lives but not meeting the criteria for specialist palliative care services.
This project has made significant strides in enhancing the uptake of advance care planning and supporting choice at the end of life. The dedication and commitment of the Palliative Care Champions and participating practices have helped paved the way for improved palliative care services and better outcomes for patients and their families.
