News

Community palliative care event sheds light on end-of-life care

Posted May 27, 2024

The Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network (HNECC PHN) acknowledged National Palliative Care Week last week, hosting a community palliative care event. Almost 80 community members including people with a life-limiting condition, carers, family, friends, service providers and those who wanted to learn more about palliative and end-of-life care options in our region, attended Thursday’s event at Kahibah Sports Club.

Palliative care helps people live as fully and as comfortably as possible following the diagnosis of a life-limiting, chronic or terminal illness. Palliative care is person-centred care to support people’s quality of life as a result of effective pain and symptom management, and holistic assessment of physical, psychological, social, emotional and spiritual needs including support for family and carers.

A spokesperson from the Palliative Care Australia said “Australians have a great attitude to life; we want to bring that same openness and curiosity to how we approach end of life and National Palliative Care Week gives us a chance to explore the thinking and conversations that go with it.”

Thank you for this morning’s session, it has been fantastic to learn about all the support services available including the grief counselling services. As I am in aged care it was good to hear about the doula and volunteer services as I really had no idea about them. I also found the ACP and Advanced care directives explained again as often come across families who find this a difficult subject to discuss.

Community Participant

The event featured a morning of short presentations from a range of palliative care professionals as well as information trade stalls. A range of topics were covered including:

What is Palliative Care? What is End-of-Life Care? Is there a difference?
Breaking common misconceptions about Palliative Care
The importance of Advance Care Planning
Grief and Bereavement Support
Carer Support Options
Palliative Care services in our region
A Carer sharing their story of their palliative care journey

Speakers and stall holders included palliative care and other professionals from a number of organisations including Hunter New England Local Health District, Carers NSW, Palliative Care NSW, BaptistCare NSW/ACT, Services Australia, Hunter Cancer Hub, Beam Services, Death Doula Services the Primary Health Network and more.

Palliative Care Australia launched a landmark survey at the commencement of National Palliative Care Week seeking to identify the challenges, barriers, and successes in delivering or accessing palliative care in a range of health settings. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and is for everyone who works or volunteers in any service that provides palliative care in Australia.