Palliative care

The Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care is a Commonwealth-funded pilot program that aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. Improve awareness and access to safe, quality palliative care at home.
2. Support end of life care systems and practices in the community.
3. Reduce unnecessary hospitalisation, enabling the right care, at the right time, in the right place.
4. Generate and use data to support continuous improvement of services across sectors.
5. Use available technologies to support flexible and responsive palliative care at home and afterhours.

Below are some highlights from the Northern Queensland Health Community Connectors Network workshops in 2023.

In 2023 NQPHN funded Palliative Care Queensland to deliver Connecting End-of-Life Care to roll out a series of events for general practitioners in primary care and Residential Aged Care Homes (RACHs) in the Townsville area.

Compassionate Communities are a core part of public health approaches to palliative care, end of life care, and bereavement. It is a whole-of-community approach to improving the end of life experience for people by mobilising local networks, groups, and services to be more conscious, aware, and equipped to offer support.

It is impossible to have hospices built in every suburb, so building Compassionate Communities works to mobilise the community to do their bit for the frail and elderly who live alone, for people with life limiting illnesses, and for people who are grieving.

We want these vulnerable groups to know they are not alone. They are part of our communities and we have the responsibility to support them.

In collaboration with The Groundswell Project Australia, NQPHN conducted a series of Health Community Connectors train-the-trainer workshops and trained more than 300 Health Community Connectors in the northern Queensland region. The train-the-trainer workshops provided education on Advance Care Planning, end of life care, palliative care resources, service mapping, localised end of life needs assessment, and codesign opportunities. To ensure ongoing system integration, specialist palliative care services were also present at the workshops.

Upcoming workshops:

• Health Community Connector workshops are planned in Hughenden and Clermont. To register, please complete this online form.

Registering for the Health Community Connectors train-the-trainer workshop will grant you automatic membership to the Northern Queensland Health Community Connectors Network.

For more information, please contact the NQPHN Older Persons Health and Palliative Care Team.

If you, a family member, or your patient has recently received the challenging diagnosis of a life-limiting illness, you are not alone. Navigating through this uncertain and difficult time can be overwhelming, but Palliative Care Queensland has collated the resources, information, and support needed.

Patient journeys developed by Palliative Care Queensland through funding from NQPHN can be found here.

NQPHN has developed a resource to raise awareness of, and to facilitate and coordinate access to, safe and quality palliative and end-of-life care at home throughout the NQPHN catchment area.

• Access palliative care resource here

FREE Online Courses 

• Self-care 

• Talking to Children about Dying 

• How to have conversations about dying and grief  

Find our more info

LGAs include: Aurukun Shire, Cook Shire, Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire, Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire, Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire, Mapoon Aboriginal Shire, Napranum Aboriginal Shire, Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council, Pormpuraaw Aboriginal Shire, Torres Shire, Torres Strait Island Regional Council, Weipa Town Authority, and Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire.

Services:

• Health Direct - Torres and Cape Directory

LGAs include: Cairns Regional Council, Cassowary Coast Regional Council, Croydon Shire, Douglas Shire, Etheridge Shire, Mareeba Shire, Tablelands Regional Council, and Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire.

Services:

• Cairns palliative telehealth care (SPaRTa) hub

• Grief and Bereavement Service

• Health Direct - Cairns directory 

LGAs include: Burdekin Shire, Charters Towers Regional Council, Flinders Shire, Hinchinbrook Shire, Palm Island Aboriginal Shire, Richmond Shire, and Townsville City.

Services: 

• Health Direct - Townsville directory

LGAs include: Isaac Regional Council, Mackay Regional Council, and Whitsunday Regional Council.

Services:

• ​​​Health Direct - Mackay Directory 

PalAssist is a service that is free for anyone who has a life limiting illness or condition, and/or their families and carers. PalAssist is available 7 days a week to provide support and information. There will always be an understanding and experienced person to talk to on the phone, or online.

Call: 1800 772 273 

Website: https://www.palassist.org.au/