Important Message In National Palliative Care Week, Australia

Main Category: Palliative Care / Hospice Care
Article Date: 20 May 2011 - 2:00 PDT


The PSA, as part of National Palliative Care Week which runs from 22 to 28 May, has urged Australians to chat to their loved ones/caregivers about dying.

Chief Executive Officer of PSA, Liesel Wett, said it could be hard to talk about death and dying, but it was very important people understood your wishes before it was too late.

Ms Wett said while many people would prefer to die at home, often it was just not feasible.

"We know that the number of people who die at home in Australia has actually decreased over the past 50 years. Now only about 16% of people die at home, 20% die in hospices and 10% in nursing homes. The rest die in hospitals," Ms Wett said.

"So if people want to die at home, or they want to have a say about the end stage of their lives, they need to do some basic planning."

This included:

- Speaking to loved ones and/or caregivers about their preferences
- Finding out about support services - there are excellent palliative care services available right around Australia
- Preparing a simple Advance Care Plan, covering the type of care they wished for and where they'd like to be at the end of life.

"Pharmacists as health professionals can often provide advice, particularly in areas cornering the quality use of medicines," Ms Wett said. "There is no doubt that when someone you love is dying, it can be a very emotional and stressful time. Talking about it beforehand, and doing some basic planning, can help to ease the burden. After all, it's all about making people comfortable at the end of their lives." PSA will be circulating and displaying new information materials from Palliative Care Australia, all based around the theme "Let's chat about dying".

"There's no escaping that we will all die eventually, and everyone deserves quality care at that time. To make that a reality, we need to chat about dying and make our preferences clear.

"In having these conversations, we have a great opportunity to make a positive impact on our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and those in our communities - the opportunity to choose to maximise our life experience when we have certain knowledge that our life's end is near; the opportunity to make choices that minimise our suffering; and the opportunity to make choices that make the journey easier for our loved ones, leading to good grieving," Ms Wett said.

Source:
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia

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