palliAGED updates

Supporting the aged care workforce to deliver quality home care for older Australians, particularly those who are needing palliative care, is crucial. We have free resources that can help:

• Practice Tip Sheets for careworkers
• Practice Tip Sheets for nurses
• Case conference forms for home care
• Palliative Care Support for Patients, Carers, and Families booklet from CareSearch

Place your order via this form.

CareSearch has launched the national Part of Life campaign to encourage community awareness of palliative care and highlight a host of free resources and information for all Australians, including those needing and providing aged care.

The campaign aims to support community members and health professionals to learn, care, and plan for palliative care, dying, and death. It highlights the six guiding principles of the National Palliative Care Strategy, which have been identified as fundamental to ensure that all people experience the palliative care they need and ideals that we all have to work towards.

palliAGED has developed a search filter to support easy and rapid access to the latest peer-reviewed information on issues in aged care. All information comes from PubMed, the large biomedical database made available by the United States National Library of Medicine.

To help the aged care workforce who are among our front line responders to COVID-19, in addition to our COVID-19 section in palliAGED, we have created a new page where we highlight noteworthy resources.

Psychosocial Care sits at the core of palliative care and connects to many of the 38 topics already available on the palliAGED website. Psychosocial care denotes the psychological, spiritual and social aspects of a person’s life, their emotions, thoughts, attitudes, motivation and behaviour, and the way in which a person relates to and interacts with their world. In practice, awareness of and attendance to psychosocial support should be a part of all aspects of palliative care. You can also read the blog by Susan Gravier and Robyn Dutschke on this release.

For more than ten years, the Palliative Approach (PA) Toolkit has supported residential aged care facilities to implement a comprehensive, evidence-based, person-centred, and sustainable approach to palliative care. Since its release in 2009, there have been many changes to the evidence base and palliAGED and End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) now support the aged care sector. The PA Toolkit was retired on 30 June 2020 after the completion of a content transition plan.

palliAGED has received new funding from the Australian Government Department of Health. This funding will ensure that the sector continues to have current and readily accessible evidence to guide palliative care practice in aged care.

It will also enable palliAGED to promote high quality care at the end of life to older Australians in line with the Aged Care Quality Standards; to identify and use evidence to address end of life issues raised in the report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety; and to continue the consolidation and dissemination of evidence and practice resources to support high quality palliative care in aged care.

According to palliAGED Director Professor Jennifer Tieman, 'we have a growing older population who are living longer and dying older with higher care needs. Aged care services and health professionals need evidence, resources, and approaches to support quality care and quality of life for older people until they die - whether at home, in the community, or in a residential aged care facility.'

'Since its establishment in 2017, palliAGED has been working to support our aged care workforce and help improve the quality of care at the end of life provided to older Australians. The new funding until 30 June 2023 will allow us to continue this important work,' stated Professor Tieman.

This year, palliAGED has also celebrated its 3rd year anniversary. Among its key accomplishments are:

• 21 new topics added to the Evidence Centre and Practice Centre pages
• All 38 topics updated with new and emerging evidence
• Symptoms and Medicines section for terminal care fully revised and updated
• 14 forms developed to support practice including case conferences and self-care
• Development of the palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets as part of activity to consolidate resources for aged care into a single site
• Expansion of the For Community section to support people with palliative care needs and their families
• Expansion of the Australian Context section including coverage of the Royal Commission into Aged Care and improved access to key documents
• New Training and Education section
• COVID-19 resources centre. 

This summary outlines the other key accomplishments and plans for the next three years. (757kb pdf)

palliAGED is distributing free copies of our Practice Tip Sheets for Nurses and Careworkers. The Practice Tip Sheets support nurses and careworkers to provide quality care for older people approaching the end of life, and have been used by aged care providers nationally.

Aged care staff can face complex issues in providing care, and we at palliAGED are committed to supporting them through our evidence-based resources.

Approximately 10-15% of older Australians suffer from a mental illness. Yet, it often goes unrecognised, and few older people suffering from mental illness receive needed specialised treatment. To help address this, palliAGED has developed new online resources on understanding and caring for older persons suffering from mental illness and approaching the end of their life.

The new resources include the Mental Illness Practice page which lists evidence-based tools, links, and other information to guide aged care staff involved in planning and providing care. Mental Illness Evidence pages have also been developed and provide a summary and in-depth synthesis of the latest evidence and research on caring for older persons suffering from depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and suicidality.

palliAGED has developed an online Palliative Care and COVID-19 Hub to support the aged care sector to prepare in case the demand for end-of-life care increases during the pandemic. The Hub is part of the resources developed by CareSearch as a member of the Australian COVID-19 Palliative Care Working Group (ACPCWG) led by Palliative Care Australia.

The hub features appraised resources on issues such as caring for the dying, communication, medicine management, ethics, and self-care. It has tailored sections for residential aged care, home based care, GPs and Primary care, as well as Government response and online learning for aged care staff. Older Australians and their carers will also find trustworthy information on infection control, providing care, and supporting one's own mental wellbeing.

palliAGED will update the hub weekly as it continuously appraises emerging local and international COVID-19 resources that can help the frontliners across our aged care and health system and the wider community.