CareSearch News

CareSearch is proud to be a member of the Australian Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Palliative Care Working Group (ACPCWG) established to provide support during the current coronavirus pandemic. As part of the ACPCWG response CareSearch has developed an online Palliative Care and COVID-19 Hub to support everyone to prepare in case the demand for end-of-life care increases during the pandemic. With pages tailored to the needs of different health and care professional groups, as well as the needs of patients, carers and families, the hub provides immediate access to trustworthy information and resources including care guidelines arising from international experience. This is an emerging and rapidly changing situation and to ensure currency we will be updating hub content on a weekly basis. 

As part of our recent update of the CareSearch Clinical Evidence pages we have released updated pages on Advance Care Planning (ACP). Providing an insight into the very latest evidence on ACP implementation and outcomes, this synthesis of the evidence also addresses the importance of using clearly defined terms when discussing ACP.

To support the community in dealing with the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, CareSearch has developed pages for Patients and Carers, and for Health Professionals to connect them with available information. While the implications of this rapidly changing situation are still emerging it is important that people have access to trustworthy sources of information.

As part of our update of the CareSearch Clinical Evidence section pages on patient management we have released updated evidence pages for Advanced Dementia and Heart Failure. 

Allied Health (AH) is expected to play an increasing role in aged care and primary care settings in meeting the personal and clinical needs of older Australians approaching the end of their life. AH is a key part of palliative care provision but evidence about their role and practice is still emerging.

As part of the CareSearch Engagement Project, a background paper on the context of AH practice in Australia was produced for use by professionals, services, and AH organisations. Key findings of this white paper include the need to support AH with education and upskilling in palliative care, funding to support their work in palliative care, and more accurate data on the use of AH services. Download a copy of the white paper now (935kb pdf).

CarerHelp, a new resource to support unpaid carers, was launched at Parliament House on Thursday, 17th October during National Carers Week 2019.

Developed as part of the Australian Family Carer Toolkit Project, this new resource helps to prepare unpaid carers to care for a partner, parent, child or friend at the end of life.

'Caring for a relative or a friend who is dying can be a rewarding yet challenging experience. Based on a significant volume of evidence, we know that carers need information about how to recognise when death may be on the horizon, what to expect when someone is imminently dying, and to know where to get help and support. Importantly, carers who are more informed and better prepared for their role are less distressed, feel more competent, and can cope better during bereavement. CarerHelp is designed to focus on these areas, in order to improve family carer wellbeing,' said Project Lead Professor Peter Hudson, an international expert on family caregiving in palliative care and Director of the Centre for Palliative Care in Victoria.

The Australian Family Carer Toolkit Project is a collaboration of the Centre for Palliative Care of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and The University of Melbourne; CareSearch of Flinders University, Carers Australia and The University of Technology Sydney. Professor Hudson acknowledged the invaluable assistance of the national expertise within the project’s Reference Group and the generous sharing of carers’ personal experiences. He stated, “Carers, health professionals, and experts have collaborated to develop the content of this innovative resource, which has been brought to life by the CareSearch Project team from Flinders University.” CarerHelp is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health.

In August-September the CareSearch Engagement Project team met in Adelaide with members of the aged care and allied health sectors, and patients, families and carers. It was great to have so many participants return for the second workshops and we are very thankful to everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to work with us. At the workshops we reported on CareSearch / palliAGED activity and achievements over the past year and discussed as a group the impact of this on palliative care awareness and what the next steps might be. In September we were also busy at the 2019 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference including presentation of a number of posters on the Engagement Project. These can now be viewed on the CareSearch publications page.