palliAGED reflection: 2024

An article written by Prof. Jennifer Tieman, Director, Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying

Aged care has been changing and it will continue to change and grow in 2025 as the Act, standards and Home Support Program come into play. Supporting older people at the end of life will continue to be a major part of care for the sector. palliAGED has been providing support and resources to the sector since 2017. This year has seen palliAGED continue to grow and deliver trustworthy information, practice ready tools and resources to support aged care workers and aged care services. It has also seen us working with partners to build our knowledge of the sector and to understand the outcomes of what we do.

palliAGED content

We have been refining our print and download resources so that aged care staff and services can make use of materials for learning and in the workplace. palliAGED packs provide practical tools and actionable sheets that can be used to provide learning and training opportunities, that can be shared with staff or families, and which can support quality improvement activities. They include our updated Practice Tips, and resource packs for home care and for residential care.

We have also updated the Australian Context pages of the website to reflect the reforms that have been implemented and are currently being progressed. 

The palliAGEDgp app has been removed from service following an upgrade and rebrand as the CareSearchgp app. It sill supports GPs working with older patients and providing care within residential aged care settings.

We see working together as being a good way to ensure further reach and ensure quality products are shared. palliAGED is managed by the CareSearch project team at Flinders University and there is close integration of content between these two sites. As well we have agreements with several groups that enable us to share products and resources One example is SA health which has provided us with permission to host the Education on the Run videos on the palliAGED site and on palliAGEDnurse app.

Understanding the sector

We have tried to be involved with the sector through conferences and presentations to share our work and to gain insights into the issues and priorities for services and staff. For example, we sought feedback at the ACCPA conference on resource needs to help aged care services prepare for the revised Standards, particularly around palliative and end-of-life care. You told us that the three most important issues were:

• Training packages tailored for specific staff roles and competencies (67%)
• Resources to support the wellbeing of staff involved in end-of-life care (56%)
• Webinars and workshops on best practices for delivering this care (49%)

We also sought the involvement of aged care staff and services in our redevelopment of the palliAGED site. As well as the palliAGED Practice Centre Redevelopment Advisory Group, we also had representatives from residential aged care and home care work with us in a co-design workshop to look at opportunities in meeting sector needs with the website redevelopment. The generosity of participants in both groups gives us energy and focus as we seek to provide resources to address Outcome 5.7: Palliative and end-of-life care in the new strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. 

Impact and Evaluation

One of our key project deliverables was the development of an impact assessment framework for use in the CareSearch including palliAGED project. We developed the framework after completing an impact scoping review and assessing the findings from 32 evaluation studies, we have conducted relating to CareSearch and/or palliAGED’s work. The framework addresses indicators and markers at the individual, service and organisation and the sector/system levels.  We tested the framework with a preliminary mapping exercise of the 2023-24 project outcomes which demonstrated the feasibility of the Impact Framework schema. One example of an outcome provided was from the 3,900 responses to the palliAGED Introduction Modules. This data showed that 98% of users said the modules increased their knowledge and 96% believed the modules will influence how they provide care.

Getting connected

We know that 2025 will be a year of change and we encourage aged care services and staff to connect with palliAGED and help us develop products and resources that can contribute to your care for older people as they come to the end of their lives.

Authors

Professor Jennifer Tieman BSc(Hons) MBA PhD FAICH

Matthew Flinders Professor

Director, Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying (RePaDD)