News

People living with dementia are less likely to receive palliative care than those with other diagnoses. Dr Elissa Campbell argues traditional models of palliative care designed for people with cancer do not meet the needs of people with dementia. This lead Dr Campbell to undertake a Churchill Fellowship to identify successful models of palliative care for people with dementia, proposing recommendations to implement these in Australia. 

People with advanced chronic respiratory disease have a higher symptom burden compared to people with advanced lung cancer. In this blog, Dr Julie McDonald advocates for early palliative care referral within respiratory clinics and explores patient, caregiver and GPs perspectives from the evaluation of St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne’s integrated respiratory and palliative care service. Outcomes of the evaluation lead to the hospital now providing early, integrated palliative care to other chronic disease steams.

Several of the national projects managed by the RePaDD Centre had the chance to participate in a 2-day forum in Canberra including a Parliamentary Friends event. Jennifer Tieman describes the forum as an amazing opportunity to connect with other palliative care projects and also consider the role of the projects and how to plan, and measure what we see as success.

In this blog, Natalie Govind discusses the lack of focus on end-of-life considerations in stroke cases despite a significant risk of mortality within the first month post-stroke. A call to action is made to initiate palliative care early, emphasizing the importance of communication and proactive intervention to improve the quality of life for stroke survivors and their families, challenging the prevailing uncertainty and advocating for more targeted research to enhance care strategies and outcomes in this context.

Conversations around prognosis and personal preferences for end-of-life management options can be difficult for both clinicians and their patients. Dr Magnolia Cardona describes CHAT, an easy to administer, user-friendly online conversation guide supporting clinicians to start an ‘honest discussion journey’ with older patients or aged care residents approaching the end of life.