Brisbane South PHN supports the provision of safe and effective palliative care outside of hospital settings, helping patients spend their end-of-life in the familiar surroundings of their own homes.

The Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care program is helping more Australians understand their options for palliative care support in a variety of settings, including the family home and aged care.

Funded under the Australian Government’s Greater Choices program, Brisbane South PHN has implemented locally-informed palliative care initiatives to:

• improve the coordination of care between providers
• boost access to a range of community-based support services
• deliver palliative care support through local general practice clinics.

Eden Malama, Palliative Care Project lead for the PHN, says the Greater Choice funding has also allowed local GP clinics to develop quality improvement (QI) toolkits which included training in palliative approaches, referral pathways, and the production of pamphlets on Advance Care Plans to help terminally ill patients to clearly communicate their final wishes.

“Advanced care planning is the pinnacle of palliative care for me. It breaks down what kind of choices patients have. It allows for the patient to have that conversation with their families and general practitioners in terms of how they want to be cared for while they are dying or on the palliative care journey..”

Eden Malama | Palliative Care Project Lead, Brisbane South PHN

Malama says the Greater Choice program also helps people to understand that palliative care is not just about dying but about improving our quality of living up until death. “There is a whole journey before we get to death and dying. A lot of that has to do with understanding what peoples’ care preferences are.”

Malama goes on to reflect, “I guess people are scared of dying. But I have witnessed that once people understand there is a lot more support for living well at the very beginning and towards the end of their journey, then that changes the bias that they are ‘just’ dying.”

Watch the video below to hear more about the Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care program in our region.

Learn more

Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care is a key initiative of the Department of Health and Aged Care to coordinate palliative care through Primary Health Networks (PHNs).

• For more information on the program, visit The Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care program page.
• For support and information on palliative care initiatives from Brisbane South PHN, email agedcare@bsphn.org.au.