Palliative Care
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is person centered care that aims to relieve suffering and promote quality of life for a person with a life-limiting, incurable illness during their end-of-life journey. This care is focused on providing quality of life, symptom management and supports the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs of a person, their family, carer/s and support people.
Palliative Care involves the provision of the following services based on the individual needs of the person:
Who is Palliative Care for?
Palliative care is for any one of any age who has been diagnosed with a life limiting illness at any stage of their diagnosis. Palliative care can be given alongside treatments given by other doctors.
Albany Community Hospice provides in-patient specialist palliative care, specifically for people with a life limiting illness. Our focus is around providing quality of life, managing pain and symptoms to enable people to live every moment in whatever way is important to them.
For more information about Palliative Care speak to a member of your care team or visit www.palliativecare.org.au
About Palliative Care at Hospice
Albany Community Hospice provides person centred, in-patient palliative care in a home like environment for a person with an active life limiting illness. The aim of this care is to provide quality of life, managing pain and symptoms to enable people to live every moment in whatever way is important to them.
Care is provided at any stage of a palliative illness from diagnosis to the final stages of life. Palliative care can also be provided alongside treatments such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy.
In consultation with the person’s medical team (including GP), an individualised care plan is developed with Hospice’s Clinical staff, that is guided by the person’s individual needs and preferences for their care, both now and for the foreseeable future.
Expert attention to managing symptoms that can cause distress is key to our approach and case management, ensuring that care plans address the person's own physical, spiritual, psychological and emotional needs but also the needs of their families and carer network.
Multi-Disciplinary Team
Our Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) meets weekly and reviews care plans for all our patients in a comprehensive manner, utilising their knowledge and experience of specialising in palliative care. The multidisciplinary approach ensures that patients receive holistic care that addresses their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs in line with their identified goals of care.
The Medical Coordinator of our Multi-Disciplinary Team is an Albany Community Hospice credentialled GP with an interest in palliative care. Hospice’s resident Palliative Care Consultant attends the MDT meetings and will review any cases referred by GPs or the MDT. Hospice nurses, our Support Coordinator and members of the WA Country Health Regional Palliative Care Team, a Psychiatry registrar, Spiritual Care Coordinator attend MDT together with other specialities as required such as representatives from Clinical Oncology and Neurological Nurses who bring a broader perspective to patient care.
General Practitioner (GP)
Your General Practitioner (GP) remains the primary provider in your care, and they will visit you on a regular basis. If your GP is not available, they will ensure that another GP covers for them. The GP will liaise with other doctors/specialists and may ask them to come and review your care if needed.
Our Partners in Palliative Care
Hall and Prior
(Clarence Estate Community Care)
Hospice works closely with Hall and Prior, Community Palliative Care Nursing who offer palliative care support services to patients as they transition to Hospice from home/residential care or return to home/residential care after leaving Hospice. Our teams’ work closely together to ensure our patients have all the support necessary to experience death in the place of their choosing, whether that is in Hospice or at home.
Note: This service is also known as “Albany Community Care”.
WA Country Health Service
Regional Palliative Care Team
Albany Community Hospice works with the Western Australian Country Health Service’s Regional Palliative Care Team to ensure that care is streamlined and coordinated from home to hospital to Hospice. They act as liaison between home, your GP and WA Country Health Service and will refer patients to Hospice.