Palliative care is everyone’s business
16 May 2013
- The Hon. Mark Butler MP
The Hon. Mark Butler MP
As a
pre-curser to the week, the Minister spoke to an assembly of almost 100 members
of the palliative care community and parliamentarians, in order to recognise
the importance of making palliative care everyone’s business.
‘National
Palliative Care Week has a theme of this being ‘Everyone’s Business’, even in
budget week when we are focussed on taxes, we are reminded that the only
certainty in life is death,’ said Mr Butler.
‘Palliative
Care Australia reminds us that these issues can hit us anywhere, at any time,
at any age, anywhere in Australia.’
Mr Butler
said as the Australian population ages, demand is building to extend the reach
and effectiveness of palliative care services
‘With an
increasingly multicultural and diverse nation, expert advisory services will
support aged care providers and general practitioners to deliver better quality
palliative care for clients of aged care services,’ Mr Butler said.
Featured
during the launch was a short film of palliative care patient, Kaye Sales from
Bunbury Western Australia who revealed her traumatic journey in which
palliative care helped her improve her quality of life and allowed her to spend
these months with friends and family.
Additionally,
2013 Senior Australian of the Year, Professor Ian Maddocks acknowledged the
work being done on the community level throughout Australia, but highlighted
the need to learn more about what palliative care means to families and
patients. He also recognised the important role the general practitioner plays
to inform patients about choices and the benefits of palliative care.
‘I’ve
managed to slip in an article in the MJA which is titled, ‘Palliative care is
everyone’s business, is it yours doctor?’ which I think is an important
question, because I don’t know as a medical profession we’re doing as well as
we could,’ said Professor Maddocks.
‘Palliative
care is a highly appropriate engagement for the skills of a general
practitioner, but few have received any [palliative care] training at an
undergraduate or graduate level.’
He noted
that there is still work to be done to ensure patient choices are respected and
acknowledged, revealing that home care is the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of palliative care.
‘Very often
the exercise of a careful facilitation of an advance choice of care will
prevent the urgent transfer of a deteriorating elderly person to emergency
intensive care, where death may occur in uncomfortable circumstances in a brief
time, and that’s ridiculous,’ said Professor Maddocks.
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