The concept of ‘death’ or ‘dying’ is rarely discussed in Australian society. However, this failure to talk about or plan for death has been identified as one of the greatest barriers to improving end-of-life care in Australia. [1]
Due to our ageing population, the number of people dying with multiple chronic medical conditions is expected to increase dramatically over the next 25 years. [2] Despite this, access to high-quality palliative care services in Australia remains inconsistent and many who would benefit from it are unable to access appropriate care. [2] To this end, research has demonstrated that raising community awareness about the importance of palliative care is needed to empower individuals to develop and discuss their end-of-life plans and to improve access to palliative care services when they are required. [3]
The National Palliative Care Strategy (2018) is a commitment by all Australian governments to ensure that Australians affected by life-limiting illnesses get the care they need to live well. [2] Under the National Palliative Care Strategy (2018), the Commonwealth Government has provided funding through The Public Health and Chronic Disease Program to support activities that improve access to high quality palliative care, end of life care and advance care planning.
Originally developed by our organisation in 2013, the Palliative Care Online Training Portal (the Portal) offers free, non-clinical, interactive palliative care training for carers, community and aged care workers, students, volunteers, family members and clinicians who want to build their skills in caring for someone with a life-limiting illness. Through the delivery of this training, we aim to improve the quality of and access to palliative care skill development for service providers.
Raising community awareness around best-practice palliative care helps individuals, their families and carers to find the support they need to live well until the end of life. To this end, we have deliberately designed the Portal to be accessible to the largest section of the community as possible. All our training modules are written in plain English and use interactive activities, video case studies and easy-to-understand examples that enable participants from all backgrounds to build skills and confidence in palliative care. Over 61,000 people have undertaken the Portal’s high-quality training, with over 80% of our users identifying as being more confident in their ability to deliver best-practice palliative care services following completion of the training.
As part of our continuous efforts to improve the accessibility of the Portal, we have recently migrated the website to a new learning management system (LMS). The new LMS delivers a more modern, streamlined experience for Portal users and provides increased functionality and support for mobile users. You can visit the new website and sign up for a free training account at www.pallcaretraining.com.au.
Looking to the future, we are planning to develop two new training modules which will supplement our existing online resources. The first of our new modules will focus on marginalised or under-served populations, many of whom experience additional barriers when accessing palliative care. The focus of the second new module will be determined through a stakeholder consultation process. Current suggestions for this final topic include personal resilience or team-based care. If you would like to contribute to this process, please contact lpuzey@ahha.asn.au to express your interest.
References
- Australian Senate. The Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee: Palliative Care in Australia. Canberra (ACT): Parliament of Australia; 2012 Oct.
- The Commonwealth Department of Health. National Palliative Care Strategy 2018. Canberra (ACT): Australian Government Department of Health; 2019 Feb.
- McIlfatrick S, Hasson F, McLaughlin D, Johnston G, Roulston A, Rutherford L, et al. Public awareness and attitudes toward palliative care in Northern Ireland. BMC Palliat Care. 2013 Sep 17;12(1):34. doi: 10.1186/1472-684X-12-34.