ACT five-year palliative care plan welcomed

The ACT government’s five-year palliative care plan has been welcomed by stakeholders but more emphasis is needed on home-based services and support for carers, says Palliative Care ACT.

Palliative Care ACT has welcomed the ACT Government’s five-year plan to improve the development and delivery of palliative care services in the territory but has called for more emphasis on home-based services and support for carers.

Palliative Care Services Plan 2013 – 2017 released by ACT Health on Monday outlines six goals aligned to the four key areas in the 2010 National Palliative Care Strategy.

It includes 16 potential strategies to meet the territory’s current and future palliative care demands, which the government acknowledges will continue to increase as the population ages.

The plan aims to:

  • increase awareness of end of life issues to support informed decision-making
  • improve access to palliative care services offered across a range of modalities and appropriate to special needs groups, such as those with a cognitive impairment
  • ensure smooth transitions between care settings
  • build capacity of palliative care services, primary providers and volunteers
  • enhance the palliative care workforce and
  • establish local evidence to inform service and workforce development

Palliative Care ACT president David Lawrance said the plan was a good start and congratulated the government on its proposed strategies.

“It has consensus among the whole palliative community, which is not easy to achieve. It is an excellent piece of work. But like everyone else involved I would like to see it go one step further.”

While supportive of everything in the report, Mr Lawrance said the government needed to ensure a broad approach to developing services including a stronger emphasis on home-based palliative care.

“Our home-based palliative care scheme is not being sufficiently resourced whereas the hospital or hospice-based ones probably are,” he said.

“Over 70 per cent of people who have been asked say they want to die at home and only 10 per cent ever do. We have to make it possible for people to die at home.”

Mr Lawrance said there needed to be more focus on the carer and support in the way of respite. In contrast to the government’s plan, Palliative Care ACT is now putting a lot more emphasis and focus on the carer rather than the person who is dying, he said.

“We have had this terrible situation where often the carer cannot last the distance. So we are looking after patients for one day a week for these people so they can resume their normal life and try and stay sane,” Mr Lawrence said.

In conjunction with existing community providers, Palliative Care ACT has opened two respite centres in the suburbs to support carers.

“The other thing missing from the formula is we need to be able to do occasional care so if you are a carer and at the end of your tether you could ring us about your loved one and we could come and get them and look after them,” he said.

The government’s plan has also been welcomed by Palliative Care Australia which congratulated the territory government for its consultative approach.

CEO Dr Yvonne Luxford said it was pleasing the ACT Government acknowledged palliative care as a crucial part of the health system.

“This plan was developed following extensive consultation with palliative care service providers, advocacy groups, carers and members of the local community. We commend the government for its leadership in this area,” Dr Luxford said.

Access the report:  Palliative Care Services Plan 2013 – 2017 – ACT Health (pdf) 

Elsewhere, Palliative Care NSW is hosting a parliamentary forum on Wednesday 30 October in Sydney.

Following the NSW government’s recent announcement for funding for community palliative care packages, the forum will look at how these services can be best utilised and how services can be improved to ensure everyone in the state has access to adequate palliative care services.

AAA will report on the forum’s outcomes following the event.

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