Kewarra Aged Care improves end-of-life care through Linkages Program
A guest blog post by Laura Tait, Facility Manager at Kewarra Aged Care
At Kewarra Aged Care, we pride ourselves on being proactive and are always seeking to improve so that our residents receive the highest standard of care no matter what stage they are in their care journey. We are working with ELDAC through the ELDAC Linkages Program to improve the support we provide our residents entering end-of-life care. ELDAC provides us with resources and information that help to guide our residents, their families, and staff through our palliative care program.
Participation in the ELDAC Linkages Program has enabled our home to implement a thoughtful and structured approach to high-quality palliative care for residents. The unwavering support provided by our linkage facilitator, Mays Windisch, and the ELDAC team has been incredible and has empowered our home to achieve its long-term care goals.
Working within the Linkages Program, we have created a structured approach for completing and reviewing advanced health directives. The ELDAC team provided support for the development of a robust policy that facilitated staff confidence and guided team members in the completion of advanced health directives.
Under guidance from our linkage facilitator, we have also applied the SPICT to our practise, which provided our home with a planned and coordinated approach that exists in our framework of care. This tool highlights the progression into palliative care for residents who have entered that next stage in their life. The application of this tool provided staff with a guided process to support the implementation of a detailed palliative care plan. This recognises that residents may not necessarily reach this phase of life and enables us to source external support for these residents when required.
We are grateful to be involved in the ELDAC Linkages Program as it has already created growth and awareness within the home. It is the foundation for an improved standard of palliative care provided at Kewarra Aged Care presently and in the years to come.
Laura Tait
Facility Manager at Kewarra Aged Care