Support Services in the Region
Community Palliative Care – Aged Care Teams, seek to improve palliative and end-of-life care for older people living in residential aged care homes. Together with the RACH staff and supportive services, aged care teams help residents to remain in their home for end-of-life care.
The oversight of the resident’s care remains with their current providers, their GP and RACH care staff. Aged Care Teams work from a consultative model and include Clinical Nurse Consultants and other team members (Social Work, Palliative Care Physicians etc). Consultation with your aged care team can occur via regular needs rounds.
Where a resident has life limiting illness and has one or more of the needs listed below, a referral to your local community palliative care aged care team should be considered.They can provide:
- palliative symptom management advice that can’t be addressed by RACH
- goals of care and/or an end-of-life care plan
- advice on anticipatory EOL medications
- significant psychosocial support for the resident and family
- specific advice for residents transferred to the RACH requiring end of life care and management of symptoms
- support and guidance where complex discussions with the resident and/or family are needed regarding end-of-life care.
Community Palliative Care provides specialist and holistic care. This can include nursing care, allied health, practical support, information, education, equipment, medication management, bereavement support and access to medical review and assessment. Community palliative care services providing palliative care aged care teams in our region are:
- Banksia Palliative Care Service covering the local government areas of Banyule, Nillumbik and Whittlesea.
- Melbourne City Mission Palliative Care Service covering the local government areas of Yarra, Darebin, Merri-bek and Hume.
- Mercy Palliative Care Service covering the local government areas of Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribrynong, Melbourne, Melton, Moonee Valley and Wyndham.
Click here to find the Community palliative care service for your area.
Residential in-reach provides acute support to residential aged care homes seeking to reduce the risk of residents going to hospital unnecessarily. The following links provide information about Residential In-Reach services in our catchment:
The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre provide a same day specialised palliative care assessment of residents and their carers with urgent palliative care needs. This service can be contacted via the mobile number 0439 573 526.
The Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) is a public health service for non-life-threatening emergencies. Click here to access emergency care for aged care residents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The Primary Health Network has developed an after-hours healthcare toolkit for residential aged care homes to help direct. It allows staff to assess current preparedness, keep resident medical records up to date, prepare action plans for each resident, communicate with relevant family members, and compile a directory of local health, welfare and emergency services.