Advance care planning is crucial in ensuring that we receive the type of healthcare we prefer when we reach our end of life. But few Australians have initiated or completed one. We look at the latest evidence and highlight what needs to be strengthened.

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.

Nurses and personal care workers provide direct care to millions of older Australians. To support them in caring for older people approaching the end of life, palliAGED has developed a series of practical tip sheets focusing on commonly encountered issues. 

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.

Many people do not receive the right care at the end of life in residential aged care. Nigel McGothigan from LASA discusses complexities of the Aged Care Industry and the importance of resources such as the palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets for aged care workers to support them in providing exceptional and exemplary care.