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The views and opinions expressed in our blog series are those of the authors and are not necessarily supported by CareSearch, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health.
The ELDAC Home Care Toolkit is available online through the ELDAC website (www.eldac.com.au) and connects aged care staff working in home and community care with tools and resources to deliver quality palliative care and advance care planning. The toolkit provides information and guidance to support clients and their families. In this blog Professor Deborah Parker and Dr Holly Mack from the University of Technology (UTS) explain how the toolkit assists in clinical care, education and learning and organisational support.
Training residential aged care (RAC) staff is important to support their knowledge to ensure excellent palliative care to their residents. Marg Adams from Palliative Care Queensland discusses her involvement in the Connecting End of Life Care Project in Northern Queensland (CELC-NQ) and highlights how the palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets have been used as a key resource by the sector.
The aged care sector has seen a major shift in the way residents in aged care should be cared for. Robyn McLean from Benetas Eaglehawk discusses the importance of providing individualised care and of listening to the needs and preferences of residents in order to support the quality of life.
Advance care planning is especially important as it assists health professionals to understand what choices and decisions have been made, how someone would like to be cared for, and the direction of treatment plans. However not all residential aged care facilities implement advance care planning policies. Nurse Practitioner Sharyn Speakman from Bushland Health Group discusses her experience and the processes she used to develop an advance care planning policy and procedures for the Bushland Health Group residential aged care facilities.
Paul Tait from End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) discusses how the ELDAC project has identified twelve commonly used clinical tools useful when caring for older people, with palliative care needs. Clinical tools provide standardised ways to assess changes to a person’s health, and are particularly useful when health needs can become increasingly complicated as a person approaches the last 12 months of life.