Discussions about CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) are difficult because they confront the person with death. However, when cardiac arrest occurs there is no time to ponder the pros and cons of CPR or to discuss this with the person’s substitute medical treatment decision-maker. Dr Barbara Hayes, Clinical Lead in Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care Consultant at Northern Health, discusses the importance of increasing awareness of CPR decision-making prior to acute illness and why discussions and decisions are a necessary part of medical treatment planning.

CareSearch Project has secured $3.8 M of further funding from the Department of Health to expand access to evidence-based palliative resources, research, and education.

Established in 2008, CareSearch is the only project in the country that continuously identifies, evaluates, synthesises, and disseminates trustworthy information and best available evidence on palliative care.

'Given the expected increased demand for palliative care, the need for evidence-based and practical resources and information is more pronounced than ever,' states Professor Jennifer Tieman, Director of CareSearch. 'We are encouraged by the continuous support from the Department to drive evidence-based care, and are fortunate to have a team and partners who are committed to evidence-based approaches.'

In this current round of funding, CareSearch will focus on: 

1. Providing current and readily accessible evidence to guide palliative care practice in Australia
2. Revitalising evidence use in palliative care through a new approach to digital translation
3. Encouraging community understanding of palliative care and death as part of life
4. Recognising and working with different care providers and across the diversity of our population

The CareSearch Project is managed by the Flinders Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death, and Dying and is based at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The project maintains the CareSearch and palliAGED websites, receiving more than a million web visitors per year. CareSearch also runs Dying2Learn, a free massive online open course that empowers the wider community to talk about death, dying, and palliative care. 

This summary outlines the other key accomplishments and plans for the next three years (1MB pdf).

We are pleased to announce that we will be running the Dying2Learn MOOC again this year. You can register your interest for updates on the dates and other information. 

Informing people with vastly different backgrounds, literacy levels and capacity, as well as roles is a challenge. This is why in the 2017-2020 project period, CareSearch and palliAGED began the Engagement Project working with specific groups (allied health, aged care and patients, carers, and families) to learn more about how they find and use health care information and what information about end of life and palliative care they need. Dr Katrina Erny-Albrecht, Senior Research Fellow for CareSearch discusses some key findings from the project and the central importance of context.

Preparing and planning for quality symptom management and palliative care should be a priority in the management of COVID-19 in residential aged care facilities. Kim Offner, Project Officer at ELDAC, discusses the lessons learnt and the practical recommendations from the Palliative Care and COVID-19 webinars which the project recently hosted.