National Advance Care Planning Week is an annual initiative by Advance Care Planning Australia that encourages all Australians, regardless of their age or health status, to make their future health care preferences known. Jennifer Tieman Director of CareSearch discusses the importance of advance care planning and the need to start more conversations about death and dying.

Rapport is an essential ingredient of quality palliative care. What is important to the person as a human being, not as a “sufferer of terminal illness”, will shape the choices that they make at the end of life. In recognition of World Social Work Day ‘Promoting the Importance of Human Relationships’, Jan Obery, social worker from Central Adelaide Palliative Care Service outlines the important work of social workers who accompany people at end of life by identifying and addressing the issues which cause the person the most grief and difficulty adapting to their changed circumstance.

Speech pathologists will often work with patients undergoing palliative care and treatment, despite the perception that it may not be their role. Wendy Pearse, Principal Project Officer for End of Life Care at Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service discusses challenging those perceptions and the importance of evidence-based practice in supporting speech pathologists in providing care for those patients.

Palliative care is increasingly mentioned in mainstream and professional media releases and reports, particularly those related to aged care and cancer, but it is often misrepresented or mentioned only in passing. Dr Katrina Erny-Albrecht from CareSearch explains what palliative care is and why it matters from a researcher perspective.