Developing Your Knowledge and Skills

There are a number of ways you can become more knowledgeable about providing culturally responsive palliative care. 

PEPA offers workshops and placements to health professionals who are interested in learning about the palliative approach. This includes tailored PEPA workshops on the palliative approach to care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare providers and communities, and a workshop for all health professionals on Culture-Centred Care of people with life-limiting illness from an Indigenous Australian perspective. The workshops are free of charge. PEPA also provides an opportunity for primary health care providers to develop knowledge and skills in the palliative approach by undertaking a supervised clinical placement for up to five days within a palliative care specialist service.

Options for further learning are detailed below.

Education and Training

• PEPA and Reverse-PEPA placements
  In addition to free PEPA workshops on the Palliative approach to care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare providers and communities, and Culture-Centred Care Workshops, PEPA offers free supervised clinical placements to health care providers who are interested in learning about the palliative approach. These placements occur within a palliative care specialist service, and last for up to five days. These placements offer experiential learning and may include visits to an aged care facility, inpatient palliative care facility, community practice, renal or oncology unit. PEPA also offers Reverse-PEPA placements, which entail a specialist palliative care staff member travelling to the health provider's place of employment to facilitate learning. Reverse PEPA placements may be especially useful in rural settings. There are no fees for PEPA clinical placements or reverse-PEPA placements. The value of PEPA placements for Indigenous health practitioners has been demonstrated in a recent journal article.
• CareSearch Education Section, with Whole of Workforce framework and listings of short courses and workshops, and web-based learning.
  • Short courses/Workshops, eg,
    • Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) offer Cultural Responsiveness Training workshops based on their Action Framework. Workshops can be specific to organisations and services. To find out more about IAHA training opportunities, contact IAHA.
    • Cultural Safety Training workshops are offered by the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwifes (CATSINaM). To find out their next dates, send an enquiry. 
    • 'How to Use Loss & Grief to Enhance Bi-Cultural Awareness, Safety & Inclusion to Enable Indigenous People to Access Mainstream Services' These 1 or 2 day workshops by the Australian Institute for Loss and Grief is for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal service providers who are working with or have a desire to work with Aboriginal people and want to foster cultural safety.
  • Web-based online learning, eg,
    • Australasian College of Emergency Medicine's Indigenous Health and Cultural Competency program consists of a series of culturally relevant online education tools and resources designed for doctors and other healthcare workers to enhance culturally competent communication and overall care for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and other culturally and linguistically diverse patients.
    • Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH) have an online Cultural safety learning module to help further develop cultural safety knowledge and provide the opportunity to reflect on your practice.

Policy and Position Statements

• Systems level change:
  • Queensland Health. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Capability Framework 2010 - 2033 (3.84MB pdf). Brisbane: Queensland Government; 2010.
  • Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council. Cultural Respect Framework 2016-2026 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. A national approach to building a culturally respectful health system (2.05MB pdf). Adelaide: COAG Health Council; 2016.
  • Northern Territory Department of Health. Northern Territory Health Aboriginal Cultural Security Framework 2016-2026 (2.89MB pdf). Darwin: Northern Territory Government; 2016.
  • Government of South Australia. A Cultural inclusion framework for South Australia - Document one - Guide to the Framework (3.7MB pdf). Adelaide: Government of South Australia; 2006.
  • Palliative Care Australia (PCA). Improving access to quality care at the end of life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians: Position statement (85kb pdf). Deakin ACT: PCA; 2015.
  • Palliative Care Australia (PCA). Palliative Care Australia Reconciliation Action Plan, March 2018 – February 2020 (2.83mb pdf). Griffith ACT: PCA; 2018.
• Community-controlled organisations:
  • National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO). NACCHO Vision [Internet]. 2016 [cited 2017 Mar 22].
  • Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO). Cultural protocols for working with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people (115kb pdf). (prepared by Cherie Waight, Manager of Aboriginal Palliative Care Project). Melbourne: VACCHO; 2010.
  • IAHA. Cultural Responsiveness in Action: An IAHA Framework. Deakin ACT: IAHA; 2015.
  • CATSINaM. Cultural safety position statement (222kb pdf). Canberra: CATSINaM; 2014.
  • Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association (AIDA). Position Paper: Cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors, medical students, and patients (141kb pdf). Canberra: AIDA; 2015.

Practical Resources

• This fact sheet provides information for GPs to improve services for Stolen Generations survivors:
  • Working with the Stolen Generations: understanding trauma (296kb pdf)
• Checklists and Self-assessment of cultural responsiveness:
  • Government of South Australia. A cultural inclusion framework for South Australia - companion document two - Cultural Competency self-assessment instrument (1.44MB pdf). Adelaide: Government of South Australia; 2006.
  • Government of South Australia. A cultural inclusion framework for South Australia - companion document three - Cultural Inclusion Checklist (1.7MB pdf). Adelaide: Government of South Australia; 2006.
  • Nguyen HT. Patient centred care - cultural safety in indigenous health (271kb pdf). Australian Family Physician. 2008 Dec; 37(12):990-4. (This article includes a cultural competency checklist for health practitioners.)
• Ensuring good communication and relationships:
  • See the Talking Together section within this Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Care section of CareSearch.
  • PEPA Project Team. Cultural Considerations: Providing end-of-life care for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Barton ACT: Commonwealth of Australia; 2014.

Next: The Care Journey

Last updated 11 December 2019