This post is the final instalment of Croakey’s coverage of the 12th Australian Palliative Care Conference (you can see all the previous articles here.)
It is based on tweets, so is not aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of the sessions reported – more to give readers a flavour of some of the discussions, and links to resources mentioned.
***
A call for politicians and retirees to volunteer their services
Palliative care specialist Professor Ian Maddocks suggested that politicians and the wider community should develop some first-hand experience of the complexities and challenges of end-of-life care.
On a related theme, this DVD featuring the experience of carers, No Greater Gift, was also profiled at the conference.
****
Ita Buttrose spoke about the Alzheimer’s Australia Fight Dementia campaign
***
Improving end of life care
Dr Adrian Hopper, Associate Medical Director for Patient Safety at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust, spoke about the AMBER care bundle, which provides a systematic approach to manage the care of hospital patients who are facing an uncertain recovery and who are at risk of dying in the next one to two months.
It is an intervention that can fit within any care pathway or diagnostic group for patients whose recovery is uncertain.
****
The final session asked a panel of experts: what’s the one thing you would change to make sure palliative care becomes everyone’s business?
***
Share your stories
Ross Murray from the Australian edition of the online publication ehospice is keen to hear story ideas.
***
Amid a busy conference schedule, there was time for creativity and care
****
And finally….
Many thanks to Jennifer Doggett for putting in some long days to report on the conference.
And also thanks to Dr Yvonne Luxford and her colleagues at Palliative Care Australia for enlisting the Croakey Conference Reporting Service, and to all the conference tweeters who helped share the news.
