State and Federal funding back Palliative Care Victoria to empower families in end-of-life decisions

Palliative Care Victoria, the state’s peak body for palliative and end of life care, has launched a groundbreaking initiative to change and enhance the quality of care of seniors. The initiative – Dignified and Respectful Decisions – educates Australians about the importance and power of discussing end of life plans with their loved ones and how to effectively collaborate with aged care teams to improve living and dying in residential aged care.

Dignified and Respectful Decisions is driven and developed by Palliative Care Victoria, and jointly funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, and the Victorian Government Department of Health.

The Dignified and Respectful Decisions project features comprehensive resources to educate and empower families and substitute decision-makers on how to advocate and make treatment and care decisions for their loved ones while collaborating effectively with the aged care teams.

The project was launched today in Melbourne with a panel of some of the country's best experts in aged and palliative care and moderated by renowned health economist and former Secretary of the Department of Human Services and Health, Stephen Duckett. Panel members include: Associate Professor Barbara Hayes, (University of Melbourne) an Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care specialist; Sandra Hills OAM, CEO of Benetas, one of the leading not-for-profit providers of residential aged and community care services in Victoria; Karen Kessner, an occupational therapist from the North and West Metropolitan Region Palliative Care Consortium; and Nola Horne, a family member with lived experience who was the primary carer for her husband living with dementia.

Palliative Care Victoria CEO, Violet Platt, said, “Building stronger collaboration across all sections of the Victorian community, regardless of cultural background, with the aged care sector is fundamental to creating better, more dignified individualised care for our elderly population living in residential aged care facilities. Not only are we able to respect a person’s wishes, we can also support an aged care and health sector under pressure, by reducing futile actions which also makes sense economically.”

Dr Stephen Duckett added, “As a health economist, I’ve worked on the alignment between policy objectives and payment design in palliative care. Policy reforms are important and needed in Australia. So is the involvement of families in the end of life care. End of life is such an emotional and sensitive topic. Having conversations about how we can work together to make sure we respect how patients choose to spend the rest of their days has to be our utmost priority.”

A recent report from the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care found more than half (54%) of palliative care professionals believe one of the greatest barriers to providing successful end of life care is the lack of an established advance care plan, with clear directives from patients. The report also found that “fulfilling the patient’s wishes” was listed as one of the top five challenges for providing end of life care.

The Dignified and Respectful Decisions resources guide patients and their families through the various medical and end of life decisions that may be required for their family members and encourages proactive planning to ease the decision-making process when the time comes. They include checklists that will help guide end of life discussions, wellbeing support information, advice on how to work collaboratively with the patient’s doctors and palliative care providers, information on how to prepare practically and emotionally to support their loved one, as well as contact to relevant support organisations.

 Recognising the diversity of the population in Victoria, the Dignified and Respectful Decisions project encompasses a resource platform that is culturally inclusive and strives to reflect the diversity of families across Victoria. This includes information booklets in different languages including Greek, Italian, and simplified Chinese.

“Through the Dignified and Respectful Decisions project, with the support of Federal and State governments, we plan to equip families with the support they need to make respectful and empowered decisions with and for their loved ones in aged care. Making informed decisions at the end of life which respects our loved ones wishes is vitally important; we only die once and these resources provide us with important touch points to help provide guidance at a challenging and emotional time,” concluded Platt.

 To access Dignified and Respectful Decisions information and resources, visit the Palliative Care Victoria website at www.pallcarevic.asn.au/dard

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