House of Assembly Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2) 52 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Grievance Debate Palliative Care Awards PALLIATIVE CARE AWARDS The Hon. L.R. BREUER House of Assembly Giles The Hon. L.R. BREUER (Giles) (15:20): Today I want to mention that, at the weekend, I am heading up to Coober Pedy for the celebrations 'Ten years on, still going strong' where the Umoona Aged Care Aboriginal Corporation will be celebrating 10 years since its official opening. To mark this special occasion it is holding an open day to celebrate and commemorate the achievements of Umoona Aged Care and its past and present residents. I find this doubly exciting, because recently they were awarded a major achievement, the 2013 Palliative Care Award winner. The patron of palliative care, His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce, held a reception at Government House on Monday, 14 October to present the 2013 South Australian Palliative Care Awards. This coincided with World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of palliative care work. Ten awards were given to individuals and teams, and Umoona Aged Care received one of the palliative care awards. Umoona Aged Care is a small remote aged care provider located in Coober Pedy. It is a residential facility established in 2002 for Aboriginal elders from the township and surrounding areas. They care for residents for a long time, which has a significant impact on the staff when there is the passing of an elder. The staff have pulled together as a team and provided quality care for the residents and, as a team, they bond and support each other through those palliative care situations. They often work outside the hours. They do much above and beyond the call of duty. After the death of a resident they also have the responsibility to help coordinate and attend sorry business and funeral arrangements. They won an award for their palliative care, but they also won another award for their teamwork. Again, that was great—congratulations to them; they do deserve it. They are one of my favourite organisations and an organisation that I have the utmost respect for. I am really looking forward to going there on Saturday and joining with them, with Nyimbula—my namesake who, of course, is one of the very important traditional women of that area—and I know that we will celebrate many years of great service to the community of Coober Pedy.