
APNA Online Learning
Learning on the go with APNA online learning
12 April 2018
‘The new End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) website—www.eldac.com.au—provides many paths to practical and useful information for palliative care and advance care planning’, says Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) Chief Executive Alison Verhoeven.
The site, released today, is part of a three-year project funded by the Australian Government Department of Health which aims to improve the care of older Australians through advance care planning activities and palliative care connections.
AHHA is a member of the ELDAC consortium led by the Queensland University of Technology, Flinders University and the University of Technology Sydney, and including Palliative Care Australia, Aged and Community Services Australia, Leading Age Services Australia, and Catholic Health Australia.
‘As an ELDAC project partner we are proud to have been involved in the development of this website, where health professionals and aged care workers can access information, guidance, and resources to support palliative care and advance care planning for older people and their families’, Ms Verhoeven said.
‘One of the features of the site is a set of five online toolkits developed by palliative care, aged care, primary care and legal experts covering Residential Aged Care, Home Care, Primary Care, Working Together, and Legal matters.
‘For example, the Primary Care toolkit, which was developed by AHHA, 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. There are links to fact sheets, guides, discussion starters, patient resources and podcasts.
‘Users can also access materials on assessing palliative care needs, providing palliative care, managing dying, and bereavement’, Ms Verhoeven said.
‘Overall, the toolkits provide 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.’
The ELDAC site includes a navigation system to help users find state and territory-specific information, and a freecall advisory service is also available during business hours.
For more information on the AHHA, visit http://ahha.asn.au.
The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association is the national peak body for public and not-for-profit hospitals, and community and primary healthcare services