Palliative care

The Palliative Care Needs Assessment

The Brisbane South Palliative Care  Needs Assessment identifies the key palliative care needs across the Brisbane South region, with a focus on supporting people to access quality care at home and in the community.

The Needs Assessment has been developed by Brisbane South PHN to ensure that planning and service delivery under the GCfAHPC Program are informed by local evidence and aligned with community needs and preferences.

The Needs Assessment identified priorities based on:

• insights from community members, carers and healthcare providers

• analysis of local service availability, access, and utilisation

• review of existing policies, programs and broader palliative care strategies.

These priorities will guide activity planning for the GCfAHPC Program, ensuring a clear, evidence-based pathway to strengthen palliative care services and better meet the needs of the Brisbane South community.

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Prompts for End-of-Life Planning (PELP) Framework

The Palliative and End-Of-Life Care Framework – Last 12 Months Of Life guides proactive, quality end-of-life care across all care settings. 

The PELP Framework contains prompts that support:

• Identification of patients suitable for a palliative approach to care:

  • Ask the surprise question: ‘Would you be surprised if the person died in the next twelve months? This can be answered by intuition , using clinical and personal knowledge of the patient, and/or clinical tools (e.g. SPICT).

• Identification of four clinical end-of-life processes:

  • Advance care planning and person-centred care based on need (at risk of dying)

  • Transition focus of care needs from restorative to palliative (likely to die soon)

  • Terminal care needs (dying)

  • After-death care (bereavement).

When to use it

Implementation of the PELP Framework helps health professionals deliver quality person-centred care in the last 12 months of life.

It encourages identifying patients at risk of deteriorating and dying, prompting meaningful conversations about their care goals and preferences. These ongoing discussions help create person centred management plans that reflect the person's wishes and reduce making difficult decisions during emotional times.

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Metro South Palliative Care Service

In our region, the Metro South Palliative Care Service (MSPCS) provides specialist palliative care services including within the community, residential aged care facilities, public and private hospitals including working closely with the St Vincent’s Private Hospital Community Specialist Palliative Care Team. 

The MSPCS works with Brisbane South PHN through the BrisbaneSouthHealthPathways initiative to facilitate integrated, local health care pathways for patients requiring palliative and end-of-life care.

Paediatric Palliative Care Service

The Children’s Health Queensland Paediatric Palliative Care Service provides physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological support to children who have a life-limiting illness. Care focuses on quality of life – it does not mean withdrawing all treatment. Active interventions such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, medication regimes or special diets may help to relieve symptoms and improve a child’s quality of life.

The service also provides support to families (including siblings) of children with a life-limiting illness and arranges for palliative care to be delivered in various places, including the home, children’s hospital, local hospital or hospice.

Palliative care referrals

Refer to the following services:

Palliative Care Queensland

Palliative Care Queensland (PCQ) is an independent not-for-profit peak body representing palliative care providers, patients and their families, and those with an interest in palliative care in Queensland. They provide information about accessing Palliative Care services and support health professionals to provide quality palliative care. 

PallConsult

The PallConsult is a Queensland Health service website and phone service providing 24/7 support to health care professionals without easy access to a palliative care service. PallConsult allows clinicians to speak with a specialist palliative care nurse at any time, day or night, and provide quality care for people approaching end-of-life and wishing to remain at home. 

Call PallConsult 

Phone: 1300 725 527
Hours: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 

ELDAC Website and Resource Hub

The End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) Helpline is a free Australian Government service. ELDAC provides information, guidance and resources to health professionals and aged care workers to support palliative care and advance care planning to improve health care for older people. 

Support for families and carers

The ‘Carer Gateway’ website is the Australian Government’s online portal to provide practical advice and access to supports for family members and friends caring for people with health conditions that demand a lot of support from their carer, including those with life-limiting illnesses. Services including support to connect with health services, free phone counselling, carer coaching and connection to other carers.

The CareSearch Community hub https://www.caresearch.com.au/Community provides trustworthy, easy-to-understand information about palliative care for patients, carers, and families. It offers practical guidance on living with illness, caring for someone, managing symptoms, and preparing for end of life, with resources tailored to diverse cultural needs and different stages of the journey.

Advance care planning

The ‘My Care, My Choices’ website is the Queensland Government’s online portal promoting the important processes of advance care planning and providing information and resources to the health professionals and the community. 

Advance care planning involves informing and educating your patients about their ongoing health care options specific to their needs, then supporting their decision making. Advance care planning may be general or require specific advice about an Advanced Health Directive, Enduring Power of Attorney, Statement of Choices or forms to revoke these documents.

Quality improvement

Brisbane South PHN has a quality improvement toolkit designed to support health professionals to provide quality palliative and end-of-life care. 

More information

Visit our Practice Support pages.