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Historically linked with the final days of life, palliative care now has a broader application in line with medical advancements in prolonging life.
© Danielle Robertson Consulting Pty Ltd t/as DR Care Solutions
As modern medicine prolongs the lives of those with life-limiting illnesses, palliative care is provided alongside life-prolonging treatments to help improve a patient’s quality of life, as well as the lives of their families and carers.
Australia’s peak body, Palliative Care Australia, describes palliative care as a human right and is spreading this message during National Palliative Care Week 2024, 19 to 25 May 2024[1].
When should you seek palliative care?
Drawing on the World Health Organisation’s definition of palliative care[2], there are two key factors prompting the need for palliative care:
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You have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, i.e. a progressive or life-limiting illness that is going to get worse and will shorten your life.
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You are suffering pain, i.e. pain of any degree.
If these factors are present, speak with your GP about palliative care.
Who provides palliative care?
Initially, palliative care may be provided by your GP and your Aged Care carers. If you are a NDIS participant you must rely on the general health system for palliative care support, not your NDIS service provider[3].
As your condition worsens, your GP will introduce the support of a palliative care physician or team. The team may include doctors, oncologists, specialists, nurses, social workers, therapists (physio, occupational and speech), psychologists and trained volunteers.
What does a palliative care physician or team do?
These people are trained to identify, assess, and treat the pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual. They are focussed on improving your quality of life and that of your family and informal carers.
Remember: Derived from the Latin root “palliat”, meaning “cloaked”, palliative care involves cloaking a person’s pain to optimise their quality of life where an illness is life-threatening[4].
Access to palliative care support
You can find local palliative care support through the Palliative Care Australia National Service Directory[5].
Improving access to support
There is much activity at Federal and State/Territory Government levels to provide Australians with access to palliative care, to note the 2018 National Palliative Care Strategy and 2019 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommendations.
Palliative Care Australia (PCA) is doing some tremendous work, through its Palliative Care Roadmap 2022 to 2027, in keeping all levels of government on track.
More recently, there is concern around the increasing rate of palliative-care related hospitalisations and the average length of hospital stays as identified in a recent national report[6].
In response, PCA Chief Executive Officer, Camilla Rowland, made the point that increasing hospitalisations have a huge impact on the workings of our health system and that perhaps people aren’t getting the choice they deserve at the end of their life.
“For most people with a life limiting illness, whether they are living at home or in an aged care facility - local GP’s, nurses, and allied health professionals can deliver the palliative care needed - outside of the hospital and specialist palliative care system, but many don’t have the training to do so, that needs to change,” Ms Rowland says[7].
Need help caring for a loved one? Please feel free to call me, Danielle Robertson, at any time for an initial discussion on how to set up the right care, support and assistance at the right time and in the right place.
Resources
[1] Palliative Care Australia: National Palliative Care Week 2024
[2] World Health Organisation: Palliative Care
[3] NDIS: Health
[4] DR Care Solutions: What Is Palliative Care?
[5] Palliative Care Australia: I Am A Patient
[6] Australian Government - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: Palliative Care Services In Australia; reporting an increase of 29% of palliative care related hospitalisations compared to an increase of 10% for general hospitalisations over the seven years up to 2021-22 and hospital stays of 10.3 days for palliative care compared with 5.7 days for all hospitalisations.
[7] Palliative Care Australia: Snapshot Of Palliative Care In Australia
