CareSearch updates

Join CareSearch in marking World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on October 14. This year’s focus on compassionate communities reminds us that life-limiting illness, death, and bereavement are a natural part of life as well as a collective community responsibility. By championing compassionate communities, we deepen our communal understanding of one of life’s profound experiences.

CareSearch supports compassionate communities with its Community Centre. Here Dying2Learn encourages reflection on personal views of death while the Diversity Hub highlights challenges faced by people from diverse backgrounds in finding support. There is also a wealth of information on caring for older people and those approaching the end of life.

October is also an opportunity to show our appreciation to the 2.65 million Australians who provide unpaid care to a family members or friends. National Carers Week, which runs from 15-21 October, raises awareness about the challenges faced by caregivers while highlighting the essential role they play in our communities. The official event website is a hub for information, resources, and events happening throughout Carers Week.

The CareSearch Community Centre offers carers support in the form of information. Information can empower carers to make informed decisions or know where to find additional support when needed. It can also help carers better understand the carer role and how to provide care to someone else while safeguarding their own wellbeing.

The CareSearch/palliAGED team is at the Oceanic Conference this week. Visit booth 12 for updates on our knowledge resources or learn more about our research and project activities through our various posters and presentations. Professor Jennifer Tieman, CareSearch Director, will discuss findings from the Dying2Learn MOOC on Wednesday at 2.45pm, and Deb Rawlings explores death doula workforce training in her presentation on Thursday at 2.45pm. Our partner projects are also active at the conference with Dr Amanda Adams and Dr Priyanka Vandersman presenting on ELDAC activities and Associate Professor Kim Devery on the work of End-of-Life Essentials. You can also view our past conference presentations on the CareSearch website.

We're excited to announce the mid-November launch of the CareSearchgp App, a resource designed to empower GPs in delivering quality palliative care across the life course. This App offers the latest guidance on terminal prescribing alongside evidence-based information on a wide range of important topics such as Advance Care Planning, addressing Voluntary Assisted Dying, recognising deterioration, engaging in case conferences, care for your dying patient, and supporting the patient’s family through stages of bereavement.

You can also register to be notified when the App is available.

During 2023-2026, we will be continuing to ensure the currency of the CareSearch website and in particular we will be reviewing the Clinical Evidence Summaries to make sure they are relevant and useful to health professionals. For our partner site, palliAGED, we will be updating our Practice Centre and the Australian context section. We will also be looking at developing a framework for both CareSearch and palliAGED sites  to understand how people and organisations are using our resources and how the sites help in providing care.