Older West Australians are set to benefit from a renewed focus on palliative care following last month’s roundtable event and the release of the Advance Care Planning Interim Report 2022.
The sixth meeting of the CEO Roundtable on Palliative Care in WA was held on August 3rd, 2022, where 12 member organisations, including the Cancer Council, St John Ambulance, End-of-Life Care and Carers WA, were invited to meet with the WA Minister for Health Amber-Jade Sanderson.
Hosted by Palliative Care WA, the state’s peak body for the sector, the roundtable provides high level advice to State and Federal Government on WA’s palliative care issues and discussions focussed on the progress of the Advance Care Planning (ACP) Support Service, which commenced seeing individuals requiring assistance on February 10th, 2022.
The ACP pilot project funded a support officer to provide free, personalised help for individuals to assist them with completing their Advance Health Directive (AHD), the legal document that enables people to make current decisions about their future care.
Dr Elissa Campbell, President of Palliative Care WA, presented a high-level summary of the latest data from the interim report alongside the economic evidence supporting increased investment in advance care planning and quality palliative care.
“The ACP Support Service Between February and July 2022, 83 participants have registered, and 77 individuals have been provided a support session, with many requiring multiple sessions,” Dr Campbell said.
“A total of 64 clients have advanced their ACP documentation which represents a staggering 78 per cent completion rate!”
During the first six months of operation, the ACP Support Service conducted face-to-face visits with clients in suburbs across the metropolitan area, from Ridgewood to Port Kennedy, as well as online consultations with people from Margaret River and Busselton in the state’s southwest.
“[However], it is conservatively estimated that demand for palliative care services rose by 30% during COVID, with demand for palliative care expected to increase by 50% between now and 2035, and to double by 2050,” Dr Campbell said.
“Apart from the COVID affect, palliative care services across the board are experiencing over 11% increase in demand for their services each year. The funding for palliative care services is not keeping pace with this increase.”
Research undertaken by St John of God Hospital Subiaco showed that significant numbers of both inpatients and outpatients, who could have benefitted from access to palliative care services, were still not receiving them and Dr Campbell highlighted that currently, while 50% of Australians have a will, only 5% had an Advance Care Plan.
Based on the data from the interim report, the CEO Roundtable recommended:
- That the Pilot project continues for an additional 12 months
- The Pilot project be expanded to include two staff to meet demonstrated need
- An extensive media campaign to be delivered over two years
- Development and delivery of a train-the-trainer program to upskill sector partners to deliver advance care planning workshops to their staff, volunteers, and clients
- The interim report be shared with the palliative and carers’ sectors and
- The WA Health Engagement with Carers WA’s Gateway service should be increased to facilitate greater uptake by carers.
Minister Sanderson said that that engaging with the aged care sector was a priority and indicated that while the project may not attract the $3.5million requested by the CEO Roundtable, her staff would work with the group to explore funding opportunities, including discussions with Lotterywest.
Medical Forum will be exploring the issues impacting palliative care and other aspects of WA’s aged care sector in next month’s November edition of the magazine.