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.

CareSearch exists to ensure that trustworthy, evidence-based palliative care information, resources, and tools are easily available in useful formats.

We provide tailored resources and information for health professionals, care providers, patients, carers and families so they can make informed decisions. In this way we are making our contribution in strengthening the quality of palliative care in Australia as we work collaboratively with partners, stakeholders and the wider community to address current and emerging challenges.

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.

When older Australians require multiple specialists and teams for their care, how do you keep everyone on the same page? In their latest blog, the ELDAC facilitator team from QUT share strategies to partner with other services to improve the care that older Australians receive at the end of life.