Palliative care helps ‘provide the capacity’ for holistic aged care
The importance of palliative care in residential and community aged care, and its role in ensuring person-centered care, will be discussed at an upcoming conference.
There is a growing impetus and imperative for more integrated, holistic and person-centered health and aged care services, and palliative care can help to provide the leadership and capacity building required to realise these aspirations.
That’s according to Palliative Care Victoria CEO Odette Waanders, who said palliative care also helped to improve the quality of life for people with advanced chronic illnesses as they approach end of life.
Ms Waanders was speaking ahead of Palliative Care Victoria’s forthcoming conference, which would examine the important role of palliative care in both residential and community aged care.
The conference was being held at a crucial time in the advancement of palliative care, according to Ms Waanders.
“Forthcoming new policy directions for palliative care and end-of-life care in Victoria will provide a focus for innovation and collaboration – inside and outside palliative care, especially in residential and community care,” she said.
“This will be a forum of many voices and ideas that will stimulate, provoke, inspire and inform, forging improvements in how to support people with a life-limiting illness and their families to live, die and grieve well.”
A panel discussion will consider the changing health, aged care and disability care landscapes, while workshops on hospice in the home and determining capacity to provide end-of-life care in a residential setting would also be of interest to aged care professionals.
International speakers include Dr Heather Richardson, joint CEO at St Christopher’s Hospice in South London, who has been a national clinical lead for Hospices UK and executive lead on the National Commission into the Future of Hospice Care.