PROFESSOR JENNIFER TIEMAN Director, Matthew Flinders Fellow, Research Centre in Palliative Care, Death and Dying, Flinders University
The ELDAC Care Model Making sense of care at the end of life.
Australia’s ageing population means there is an
last phase of life when a person progresses
increasing number of people aged 65 years or
toward death.
older. As most deaths in Australia occur among
Twelve major documents were examined,
older people (66% of deaths occur in people aged
including the National Palliative Care Standards
75 years or over), aged care staff and services are
and Service Development Guidelines (Palliative
increasingly providing care for clients and residents
Care Australia); National Consensus Statement
who are coming to the end of their life. ELDAC (End
on End of Life (Australian Commission for Safety
of Life Directions for Aged Care) aims to support
and Quality in Healthcare); National Palliative
the aged care sector by providing information
Care Strategy (Australian Government Department
and toolkits for palliative care and advance care
of Health); and six projects funded under the
planning, and by facilitating linkages between
National Palliative Care Program.
aged care, palliative care and primary care. Early in the development of ELDAC, we reviewed
A review of these policies and project practice frameworks showed there were common core
the national palliative care and advance care
elements in identification, care planning and care
planning policies and the frameworks used in
delivery. In essence, the key processes were:
major palliative care projects. As there are already
• advance care planning, to be aware of the
well-established programs of work in palliative care
wishes and preferences of the individual;
and advance care planning, understanding their
• recognising end of life by proactively considering
core elements would help provide consistency
whether the person could have changes
between sectors and activities.
indicating that death is foreseeable;
This document review aimed to identify the
• assessing palliative care needs, to enable
core elements of palliative care and advance care
comprehensive identification and planning
planning that were being used consistently across
of care;
Australia. The findings would form the basis for a
• providing palliative care, including delivering
care model that could help staff and services to
care, reassessing needs and monitoring for
consider and manage key care issues in the
changes;
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The Health Advocate • OCTOBER 2019
