Supporting industry in advance care planning

The national launch of Decision Assist, a program funded by the federal government to provide support and education to GPs and aged care staff on advance care planning and palliative care, will be held next Tuesday (28 October 2014).

As Australia’s population ages, access to appropriate advance care planning and palliative care services is becoming increasingly important. Decision Assist aims to assist those caring for older Australians by providing them with a range of services that provide additional support and training so they are well equipped to deliver the right advice, in the right place, at the right time. 

There are several aspects to the project, which include:

• A telephone based advice service established to enable delivery of advisory services to general practitioners and aged care providers in all areas of Australia, 24 hours a day, seven days a week via a national 1800 or 1300 number. This number will route calls to the most local available Specialist Palliative Care Service (SPCS) operator. Callers will be referred to relevant existing resources within their local area (where these exist), or will be provided with the required advice where a service gap exists.
• The implementation of the Specialist Palliative Care and Advance Care Planning Advisory Service will include partnering with agencies currently providing advisory services, and the development of national project branding to establish its own identity among existing services. To ensure advisory services are of high quality, standard clinical practice guidance will be developed for both specialist palliative care and advance care planning.
• A strong focus on up skilling aged care providers and GPs through specialised education.
• The implementation of strategies to increase linkages between aged care services and palliative care services.
• New technologies will be employed to ensure GPs have convenient and ready access to specialist medical advice. This includes using means such as telehealth to overcome geographic isolation and difficulty accessing specialist palliative care advice and support. Other innovative technologically based elements will be examined in the scoping phase of the project.

Leaders in politics, health and the aged care sectors are being invited to attend the event, which will showcase all of the Decision Assist projects and the ways they are working to improve access to quality advance care planning and palliative care for older Australians.

It will also be an important networking opportunity for anyone interested in advance care planning and palliative care, and for those who want to find out directly from the project leaders about how Decision Assist can help and support people working in the industry.

The Decision Assist phone service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1300 668 908.

If you would like to attend the Decision Assist launch, or obtain a launch information pack, email the Events team at Palliative Care Australia on Events@palliativecare.org.au.