A new website has brought together a repository of practical and useful information for palliative care and advance care planning
A new government-funded website has brought together a repository of practical and useful information for palliative care and advance care planning, including an online toolkit for primary care.
The digital resource, called End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC), is part of a three-year Department of Health project aimed at improving care for older Australians.
The primary care toolkit was developed by the Australian Healthcare and Hospital Association (AHHA), which is one of the members of the ELDAC consortium, which also includes Palliative Care Australia, Aged and Community Services Australia, Leading Age Services Australia and Catholic Health Australia.
The primary care toolkit includes links to fact sheets, guides, discussion starters, patient resources and podcasts.
“[The toolkit] leads healthcare workers and primary care teams through the various steps involved in supporting advance care planning with patients and their families, including considerations for people of various religious and cultural backgrounds,” AHHA chief executive Alison Verhoeven said.
Aside from primary care, there are also toolkits on topics such as residential aged care, home care and legal issues.
The toolkits provided a “comprehensive series of materials, resources and links designed for Australia that have been well thought through, endorsed by experts in the field, and of a scale and quality not easily found elsewhere”, Ms Verhoeven said.
The ELDAC site, www.eldac.com.au, also includes a navigation system to help users find state and territory-specific information, and a link to a free telephone advisory service available during business hours.
