Victorians urged to talk about palliative care

24 May 2011

As part of National Palliative Care Week 2011 the draft Strengthening Palliative Care: policy and strategic directions 2011 – 2015 was released for public consultation.

Released by the Minister for Health and Ageing David Davis at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Sunday, the policy outlines how the Victorian Government will meet the challenges in palliative care.

Palliative Care improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness. It does this through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. (WHO 2010)

Mr Davis said the theme for National Palliative Care Week in 2011 was Let’s Chat about Dying.

People don’t like to talk about the end stage of their lives and they tend not to know what support is available,” Mr Davis said.

“National Palliative Care Week is an opportunity to let Victorians know about the services available to assist people with a life threatening illness and to encourage people to talk to their loved ones about their preferences for their care at end of life.”

In the last year, over 17,000 people received specialist palliative care in Victoria. Community palliative care services supported 13,000 of these people to be cared for at home.

The policy has been developed through consultation with the palliative care sector and other related sectors, expert advice from palliative care clinicians and reviewing the evidence to ensure that the actions in this policy are supported by research and best practice.

The consultation paper is available on the Department of Health’s website for feedback until the end of June 2011. The final version will be released in August 2011.