MORE than $60 million in federal government funding has been allocated for new projects to help improve quality of and access to palliative care.
The funding includes $45.4 million through the National Palliative Care Projects grants initiative for 12 projects that will help people on their final journey, and their families, with end-of-life care.
Projects include:
- Palliative Care Australia ($5.5 million) to continue its work promoting quality end-of-life care
- University of Wollongong ($7.8 million) for the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration, which supports palliative care providers to measure the impact of their service delivery for people with a life-limiting illness
- Queensland University of Technology ($12 million) for the Palliative Care Education and Training Collaborative, which builds the capability and capacity of the health workforce to provide quality palliative care
- Flinders University in South Australia to continue CareSearch ($3.6 million), an online resource that provides evidence and palliative care information for health professionals and consumers
- Austin Health for Advance Care Planning Australia ($4.1 million) to increase awareness and uptake of advance care planning nationally.$15 million over three years has also been allocated for the National Specialist Palliative Care
- Advance Care Planning Advisory Services project which will help improve the palliative care skills and advance care planning expertise of health professionals working with older Australians.
The 2017-18 federal budget also provided $8.3 million from 2017-18 to 2019-20 for the Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care Measure which aims to improve palliative care coordination with funding provided to Primary Health Networks (PHNs) to implement the measure.
This is a pilot program and 10 PHNs (or PHN consortia) will be selected to participate.
The applications are currently being assessed and successful applications will be announced before January 2018.
For more information about Palliative Care Australia visit www.palliativecare.org.au
