CareSearch Blog: Palliative Perspectives

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. It is organised by a committee of the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance. The purpose of this day is:

• To share WHPCA's vision of increasing the availability of hospice and palliative care throughout the world by creating opportunities to speak out about the issues
• To raise awareness and understanding of the needs – medical, social, practical, spiritual – of people living with a life limiting illness and their families
• To raise funds to support and develop hospice and palliative care services around the world.

The National Standards Assessment Program (NSAP) is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and administered by Palliative Care Australia (PCA). NSAP has been running since 2008 and is a quality improvement program available for all specialist palliative care services in Australia.

NSAP aims to improve outcomes in palliative care and end-of-life care at a systematic level by providing a structured program for services. The structured 2-year NSAP cycle enables specialist palliative care services to enhance the quality of their governance and service delivery by:

• Reviewing how they meet the National Palliative Care Standards (the standards)
• Prioritising key improvement areas so they can better meet the standards
• Developing and implementing a quality improvement action plan