Ensuring access to quality end of life care, including specialist palliative care, remains one of the major challenges to health systems and one we are focused on achieving.
Palliative care can assist with life-limiting illnesses, including:
- Dementia including Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia
- Advanced chronic lung disease
- Advanced heart disease, including heart failure
- End-stage kidney failure
- End-stage liver disease
- Cancer
- Degenerative neurological conditions
- Frailty, advanced age and/or multiple chronic medical conditions
Palliative Care Handbooks
The Palliative Care Community Handbook and Residential Aged Care Homes (RACH) Palliative Care Handbook for Families are available to health professionals and aged care workers when identifying patients that would benefit from a palliative approach to care and ensuring they receive this care in their place of choice.
While most Australians wish to die at home, many older people die in hospitals or aged care facilities. Therefore, it is important to identify people who would like to receive palliative care early.
Services listed in the handbooks are located in Western Sydney. Whilst it is not an exhaustive index, we aim to enable patients, their families and carers with information including:
- What questions to consider asking their aged care provider and GP
- How to create an advance care directive
- Palliative care inpatient and community services
- After hours support
- Carer support
- Counselling and support services for grief and bereavement
- Practical support, including meal delivery, financial support, transport services, equipment and aids
Healthy Western Sydney
Healthy Western Sydney is a free service directory for community members and health professionals in Western Sydney offering information on palliative care, aged care and dementia services in Western Sydney.
Visit Healthy Western Sydney to access free health services.
Other Resources and Links
Knowing where to seek available support from diagnosis through to the end-of-life period and beyond is important to ensure you receive appropriate care.
CareSearch provides evidence-based end of life and palliative care information and resources for health professionals, patients, carers and families to enable informed decision making and quality care across the life span and health care system.
The CareSearchgp app is designed to give guidance to GPs about terminal prescribing for specific symptoms and evidence-based information on key care challenges.
My Aged Care is the national contact centre for Government funded aged care services. Health professionals can also use this portal for referral, assessment and services.
Services range from helping with daily tasks to end-of-life care, support for carers, respite care and access to residential aged care. Some services are available while the patient is living at home.
All Aged Care services can be accessed through the My Aged Care website or by calling 1800 200 422.
Advance Care Planning
Advance Care Planning (ACP) involves a patient thinking about and communicating to others how they would like to be treated in the future if they have a condition where they can no longer speak for themselves. This may happen, for example, as a result of stroke, progressive dementia, or becoming unconscious from some form of accident or illness.
Undertaking ACP means that the future decisions about a person’s care are more likely to reflect their wishes. ACP identifies sensitive issues and clarifies the actions an individual would prefer in certain medical situations should they occur in the future. For many reasons these topics of discussion between family, carers and GPs are often avoided.
Voluntary Assisted Dying
With the commencement of voluntary assisted dying in NSW from November 2023, the office of the Chief Health Officer has developed a NSW Voluntary Assisted Dying Clinical Practice Handbook.
The Handbook is intended for use primarily by authorised voluntary assisted dying practitioners but may also be a useful reference tool for health professionals involved in the voluntary assisted dying process or providing care for a patient accessing, or considering accessing, voluntary assisted dying.
HealthPathways
Western Sydney health professionals can access palliative care services on the Western Sydney HealthPathways website. If you don’t have the login details, please contact our HealthPathways team at healthpathways@wentwest.com.au or call 8811 7100.
WSLHD’s New Community Palliative Care Service
The new community service model of care will be delivered through home visits, outpatient clinics and virtual care, in collaboration with our patients, families and multidisciplinary team. It will be available 24/7 and include the full scope of palliative care, from supportive care to maximise quality of life, through to end-of-life care.
Case management will be provided by the patient’s Registered Nurse throughout their illness, supported by Senior Specialist Palliative Care Nurses and Allied Health teams working in partnership with the patient’s medical specialist and GP.
View more information is available on the consumer information sheet. If you have any questions about patient transfer or referral, please contact WSLHD Community Palliative Care service at wslhd-communitypalliativecare@health.nsw.gov.au or Silverchain on 1300 758 566.
Continuity of high-quality patient care remains our top priority. We are working very closely together to ensure a smooth and patient-centred transfer of all current patients from Silverchain to WSLHD.
All patients will be transferred into WSLHD’s care by Monday 1 July.
If you currently have any patients in Silverchain’s care, we will advise you of the date when your patient has transferred to the WSLHD Community Palliative Care service.
Eligible patients can be referred to the new service by contacting WSLHD Central Referrer Services:
- 1800 600 681 (8:00am-5:00pm, Monday to Friday)
- WSLHD-CommunityHealth-ReferralService@health.nsw.gov.au
WSLHD clinicians will be able to refer eligible patients using the ‘WSLHD Community Palliative Care Service’ eReferral form in eMR
The following patient eligibility criteria will apply:
- Lives within the Western Sydney LHD area
- Diagnosed with a life-limiting condition which requires assessment and supportive care management of complex symptoms
- Diagnosed with a life-limiting condition with a short prognosis
- Diagnosed with an advanced and progressing life-limiting condition which requires palliative ‘end of life care’ support
- Over 16 years of age or transitioning from child to adult health services
- Consulted and consented to referral to the service
Individuals who are currently residing in a correctional centre, and patients who are aged under 16 years and receiving care from Sydney Children’s Hospital Network Paediatric Palliative Care service, are not eligible for the service.
Progressing Health Now
Find out more about other Programs and Priorities for Western Sydney.
