News

Alyssia Coventry, PhD Candidate, discusses findings form a scoping review that suggest the most effective interventions to help prepare families for an anticipated death in ICU. These interventions aim to meet the physical, emotional, spiritual, and psycho-social need of families during end-of-life care in the ICU.  

Insights from a scoping review by ARIIA (Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia) identified barriers and enablers to implementation of changes in aged care. Based on the findings, ARIIA are developing an implementation readiness assessment tool, supporting organisations to improve implementation, continue innovating and enhance care for older people. 

This blog post delves into the integration of telemedicine within a Supportive Care Clinic (SCC) for patients with non-malignant chronic diseases, particularly amidst the COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne. Survey results highlight high satisfaction rates with telemedicine, indicating its potential to enhance access to palliative care services, especially for patients with limited mobility or technological knowledge.

Debbie Timpano, Palliative Care Project Officer, outlines key challenges of healthcare practitioners in using syringe drivers and prescribing opioids and introduces new training modules by Country SA PHN aiming to increase confidence and proficiency levels among healthcare providers using such medications in home settings.

With higher rates of frailty and death in aged care there is a movement towards making death as discreet as possible.  In this blog, Rose Plater suggests the unintended consequences that this can bring and encourage compassionate design and open communication that ensure a good death is not accidental.