MATTERS OF INTEREST

PALLIATIVE CARE COUNCIL

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:27): Earlier this year, I visited the Palliative Care Council of South Australia and met with Tracey Walters, the executive officer, and the chair of the board, Dr Mary Brooksbank AM, to discuss palliative care in South Australia and where they hope to take it.

The Palliative Care Council is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to provide palliative care and support to people with a terminal illness, as well as support for their friends and family. Palliative care is the act of improving the quality of life for people with a terminal illness, making their final days more comfortable, assisting in the relief of their pain and helping them and their family come to terms with their death, as well as helping to understand and accept death as a natural and normal part of life.

Palliative care can be provided by a large variety of different health professionals, ranging from general practitioners to nurses to social workers and even volunteers, depending on the needs and wants of the individual patient. Palliative care is not restricted to hospitals; it can also be provided in a hospice, an aged-care facility and even at home, whichever makes the individual client feel most comfortable and suits their needs best.

A hospice, sometimes referred to as a palliative care unit, is a place where terminally ill people can go to live out their final days in the comfort of a home-like environment. The benefit of a hospice over their own home is that it provides a home-like environment while providing access to medical support services and nurses.

In South Australia, palliative care was first seen in its current form in 1980, when the southern hospice association was formed. In 1983, Flinders Medical Centre hosted South Australia's first hospice service, the Southern Community Hospice Service. From there, we started seeing hospice services appearing all over Adelaide.

The Mary Potter Home at Calvary North Adelaide Hospital was founded in 1902 by the Little Company of Mary nuns, a nursing order founded in 1847 by Mary Potter. In 1986, the Mary Potter home became the Mary Potter Hospice and created formal links with the Royal Adelaide Hospital, leading to dedicated palliative care beds being allocated within the hospital in 1989. It is from these beginnings that the palliative care services we see today are derived.

In the last financial year, the Palliative Care Council took charge of a number of projects across South Australia. One notable project was the Palliative Care Volunteer Project that was launched in September 2011. This project is a statewide initiative aimed at developing a stable and sustainable volunteer service model for palliative care services. Project officer Helene Hipp travelled across the state to learn and investigate what is needed to achieve this. She has developed a model that was trialled over the following 12 months. The trial shed some light on some of the main issues that the Palliative Care Council faced in their endeavours ranging from the lack of resources to a lack of training, difficulties with organisation and management of volunteers, and varying degrees of interest in volunteering in such a demanding environment.

The Palliative Care Council is seeking to take what they have learned in the trial and push for a more standardised palliative scheme, including more comprehensive training, recruitment programs and volunteer support.

Strong, passionate and steadfast are some of the words that come to mind when I think about the men and women who work and volunteer in palliative care. I take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work. Finally, I also thank the Palliative Care Council of South Australia for their work in improving palliative care services in South Australia.