End of Life Care in Aged Care
Palliative care has traditionally been thought of as the care of people with life-limiting illness. However, palliative care has been re-defined as an intent to relieve serious health-related suffering. Also, the cause of suffering extended to a range of chronic health conditions or extreme frailty of old age. The World Health Organization proposes all national health systems should embed palliative care at all stages of care. They state that providing palliative care should be considered an ethical duty for health professionals, and the workforce should be training in palliative care skills for delivery across a range of settings.
Good palliative care helps older people live comfortably and fully as they near the end of their lives. Kind, respectful, and personalised support is very important in aged care services. ELDAC offers information and tools to the aged care workforce, to help with palliative care and planning for the future. This project is funded by the Australian Government. It is managed by three universities and four national groups from aged care, palliative care, and primary care.