General Practitioners have a pivotal role in providing and coordinating palliative care for older patients with life limiting illness and their families. The CareSearch Older Australia webpages provide information and resources that families and older people can use.
The GP Hub provides a comprehensive overview of palliative care issues from the GP perspective. It includes tools, resources and information.
Comorbidity and multimorbidity can be specific concerns when caring for older patients. The Multimorbidity page on palliAGED provides helpful links and suggestions for practice.
Effective communication is essential for the delivery of high-quality care. However sometimes communication regarding palliative care can be difficult. The palliAGED Communication webpage provides a set of key points about communication and phrases that can be used to deliver and discuss prognosis as well as end-of-life issues.
The palliAGED Symptoms and Medicines webpages are a resource to guide evidence-based practice in the care of older people in the last days of their life.
If considering a case conference to coordinate care, palliAGED has a set of forms that can help organise and document the case conference.
The CareSearch MBS items for General Practitioners webpage provides a list of MBS items which GPs can use to be paid for the palliative care they provide to patients.
To help coordinate the care of a patient with a life-limiting illness between health services the CareSearch Pathways and Frameworks webpage provides examples of care pathways, referral triggers and practical advice on care transitions.
It is well recognised that providing palliative care can be challenging, and that it is important that those providing palliative care practise self-care. The CareSearch Self-care webpage enables you to plan and practice self-care.
Building expertise in palliative care is easy with several options available through the CareSearch Ongoing education webpages which provide a wide range of education options.
Last updated 02 December 2022