World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world on the second Saturday of October each year.
2024 marks 10 years since the World Health Assembly (WHO’s Governing Body) passed the only stand-alone resolution on palliative care, calling for all countries to “strengthen palliative care as a component of comprehensive care throughout the life course.”
This year’s theme for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, “Ten Years Since the Resolution: How Are We Doing?” encourages us to reflect on our journey as the peak body for palliative care in NSW and assess the progress we have made in leading, supporting and advocating for a strengthened palliative care sector.
Throughout these years Palliative Care NSW has been advocating for equitable access to high quality palliative care for all residents of NSW, while supporting our ever-growing membership base of health professionals, volunteers and people with interest and expertise in palliative care.
This article highlights some of the programs and services that have been developed and delivered in the last decade that work towards that aspirational resolution passed by the WHA to “strengthen palliative care as a component of comprehensive care throughout the life course.”
Community Conversations and PalliLEARN (Since 2023)
There is broad recognition that greater death literacy at a community level is crucial in supporting the public health approach to palliative care. This year Palliative Care NSW was funded by the NSW Government to deliver PalliLEARN, a course-based program designed to cultivate knowledge and compassion around death, dying and grieving. In addition, this project will include Community Conversations, which builds local and community capacity to have conversations about what matters most.
The goal of these programs is to inform diverse communities from across NSW about what palliative care is – and often what it is not – it aims to increase community capacity to engage with death and dying, while removing fear, stigma and misunderstanding about palliative care.
The popularity of the Community Conversations sessions that have been held so far demonstrates a willingness in the community to have open and honest conversations about death and dying. While PalliLEARN is supporting community members as well as those in the healthcare sector, and aged care sector to better understand the role of palliative care when providing comprehensive care throughout the life course of individuals.
To register your interest in these programs, complete the EOI on our website by clicking here.
Homelessness and Palliative Care in NSW (2022 – 2024)
Vulnerable populations, including those experiencing homelessness, can face unique barriers to quality palliative care. Between 2022-24, Palliative Care NSW conducted two scoping studies to explore the barriers that inhibit and prevent access to palliative care by those experiencing homelessness in NSW.
By collaborating with key stakeholders and health professionals, these studies shed light on the issues experienced by homeless people with life-limiting illnesses in Metropolitan Sydney and Regional, Rural and Remote NSW. The studies also explored the issues experienced by health professionals while trying to provide homeless patients with adequate care.
To read Palliative Care NSW’s scoping studies on homelessness and palliative care in NSW, click here.
Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Community Connections(2024)
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities face challenges when navigating palliative care services and the health system in general. Palliative Care NSW’s CALD Community Connections project provides culturally appropriate information about palliative care and available services to CALD communities in NSW.
For the first time, and thanks to an invaluable partnership with SydWest Multicultural Services, Palliative Care NSW has recently hosted sessions that were able to address misunderstandings about palliative care and provide useful resources to five different CALD seniors community groups in Western Sydney. From these sessions we better understand the value of bringing this information directly to these communities and in having resources available in appropriate languages so that everybody can understand and access care when they need it. Palliative Care NSW continues to develop and grow our resources in multiple languages that reflect the communities we serve. We also connected clinicians from WSLHD into these communities, so they could answer questions and provide members of these CALD groups with information about their local palliative care services and encouraged them to consider What Matters Most to them at end-of-life.
This engagement with CALD communities continues to be a focus for Palliative Care NSW, with the development of our professional network. As part of the CALD Communities & Palliative Care Professional Network, members come together once a quarter to engage in peer-to-peer discussions and consultation regarding culturally appropriate palliative care.
To join this network, please register your interest here.
Palliative Care NSW Service directory (Since 2022)
Making it easier for the community and healthcare professionals to locate theirpalliative care service is the goal of the service directory. Palliative Care NSW has developed a comprehensive list of dedicated palliative care inpatient units, community services and acute hospitals providing palliative care throughout NSW, available at the click of a button. Click on PCNSW service directory tab, type in the suburb and choose the radius parameter OR call the Service Guidance Manager 02 8076 5605.
Volunteer Services Support Program (Since 2014)
For the last ten years Palliative Care NSW, with funding from NSW Health, has championed and supported palliative care volunteering across NSW. Our Volunteer Services Support Program now supports more than 38 volunteer services. Palliative care volunteers are an important part of the team delivering quality palliative care. They provide comfort, companionship and respite to people receiving palliative care, their family, and carers. Find a volunteer service here.
Palliative Care Professional Networks (Since 2014)
Providing quality Specialist Palliative Care requires highly skilled and trained clinicians, doctors, allied health professionals and more. Peer to peer networks support ongoing professional development, connections and sharing of innovations. Our Palliative Aged Care Network (PACN) has grown significantly in the last ten years representative of the importance of palliative care in aged care settings. As mentioned earlier, our new CALD Communities & Palliative Care network is also reflective of the importance of inclusive and equitable palliative care. Members can join these networks here.
A Sector Highlight
As a sector, there have been great strides made in improving accessibility to palliative care across NSW. An area that is certainly strengthening palliative care as a component of comprehensive care has been the development of supportive care services for people with non-malignant disease, and one we would like to highlight as an achievement for the sector in recent years. As our population ages, there has been an increase in chronic conditions such as heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary, chronic kidney disease, and dementia. Given these are long lasting conditions causing substantial ill health and disability impacting the person’s quality of life, there has been an emergence of supportive care services. Supportive Care services utilise a multidisciplinary approach to manage chronic illnesses in the last 24 months of life. As the person’s illness progresses and requires end-of-life care, the focus transitions to comfort measures. These services are a welcome addition for the community and the sector.
Palliative Care NSW welcomes the opportunity to reflect on our progress over the past decade as we celebrate World Hospice and Palliative Care Day We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our Management Committee, our members and our dedicated staff who work every day to develop innovative programs and provide high-quality services that support residents of NSW to access palliative care when and where they need it.