RELATED: Planning vital to die well
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Palliative care in the south-west has come a long way. When Warrnambool’s ward opened about 30 years ago it was one of the first of its kind in regional Australia.
From just one nurse in 1986, the community and in-patient services at South West Healthcare now covers a 400-kilometre radius and includes a six-bed unit and a multitude of medical, auxiliary and growing volunteer staff aimed at helping people to die well.
Nurse consultant co-ordinator of palliative care Andrea Janes said whether in the hospital or out in the community, the focus was on getting the best out of life.
“We really encourage people to live their life to the maximum while they do have a life-limiting illness,” she said.
“A lot of our work is about asking people where they want to be cared for and where do they want to die and we have those very difficult conversations and we try our best to carry that through.” Demand for palliative care is increasing with the number of patients currently in the 80s. Ms Janes and nursing manager of medical unit palliative care John Quinlivan agree that the next challenge is to give patients in rural areas the same access to services. They think the state government’s palliative care framework will pave the way.
“What we want to do is provide a similar service to someone in Timboon or Port Campbell as someone in Warrnambool,” Ms Janes said.
“The next 12 months John and I will be working together to implement the new End of Life and Palliative Care Framework. One of those in particular is a new end of life pathway… that will provide any staff member with that specialist knowledge and recommendations for care in end of life so that hopefully no matter where people die they will get that same specialist care.”
Importantly, support continues for family and carers after a patient dies. This weekend an annual memorial service for those lost is expected to involve about 90 people.
“Palliative care looks after the patient and the family, it’s a family-centred approach,” Ms Janes said.
Mr Quinlivan said the community had also been generous.
“A lot of the equipment is through donations of past family members who have been through palliative care… and people are very generous with what they then give back in terms of funds, or they’ve identified that we didn’t have something that they thought we could really utilise,” he said.
“People are very generous in giving back, which has enabled us to then help other patients in the future.”