Newly developed resources for providers, and consumers requiring palliative care are now available

A blog post written by Christine Ash

Between 2018- 2021, Gold Coast Primary Health Network (GCPHN) was one of thirteen PHNs to participate in the Department of Health’s three-year project pilot, Greater Choices for At Home Palliative Care.
 

As part of this project GCPHN developed a suite of resources to support both providers and consumers requiring palliative care, including:

• The development of The Advance Care Planning (ACP) Quality Improvement (QI) Toolkit to support general practices in identifying patients who may benefit from discussing Advance Care Planning. Identifying patients early helps ensure the future health and personal care preferences of the patient are respected in the event the person is unable to communicate for themselves.
• Development of the guide, Planning your Future Care Today and online resources for consumers. These resources assist by providing a simple, step-by-step guide to the process of creating an ACP. We encourage the sharing of these resources to assist providers and consumers to initiate conversations about advance care planning and promote their use as a tool to increase health literacy.
• In partnership with the Gold Coast Health Specialist Palliative Care team, GCPHN developed 22 localised Palliative Care Health Pathways. These pathways were initially hosted on the GCPHN website, until the launch of the Gold Coast Community HealthPathways in May 2021. Having already developed these pathways before the launch of the Community HealthPathways allowed for a smooth migration of content to the new platform.

Following the Department of Health’s decision to continue to fund and expand this activity nationally, our focus has now changed to provide training opportunities for health care providers in the region over the next three years. Working collaboratively with the Program of Experience in the Palliative Care Approach (PEPA) team, we are funding training and clinical placements in Queensland Health Palliative Care units. This valuable mentoring and training opportunity is being offered to general practitioners, primary care nurses from all sectors, allied health providers, personal care workers in the community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care workers.
 

It is envisaged that the legacy of this training will be a highly skilled and confident primary care workforce that will deliver palliative care to Gold Coast residents in their place of choice.
 

If you would like to learn more about our palliative care initiatives, please visit Gold Coast Primary Health Network’s website.
 

GCPHN is an independent, not-for-profit company. GCPHN is one of 31 Primary Health Networks in Australia established by the Australian Government. We work closely with public, private and non-government organisations in the primary healthcare and acute care sectors to improve the health and well-being of the Gold Coast residents.

Christine Ash
Acting Program Manager (Special Projects)
Gold Coast Primary Health Network