Palliative Care Guide for GPs – Caring for Older People

1. Older Australia

General Practitioners have a pivotal role in providing and coordinating palliative care for older patients with life limiting illness and their families. The CareSearch Older Australia webpages provide information and resources that families and older people can use.

2. GP Hub

The GP Hub provides a comprehensive overview of palliative care issues from the GP perspective. It includes tools, resources and information.

3. Multimorbidity

Comorbidity and multimorbidity can be specific concerns when caring for older patients. The Multimorbidity page on palliAGED provides helpful links and suggestions for practice.

4. Communication

Effective communication is essential for the delivery of high-quality care. However sometimes communication regarding palliative care can be difficult. The CareSearch Starting palliative care conversations guide (172kb pdf) suggests practical ways to communicating with patients on prognosis and care goals.

5. Symptoms and medicines

The palliAGED Symptom Management webpages are a resource to guide evidence-based practice in the care of older people in the last days of their life.

6. Case conference

If considering a case conference to coordinate care, palliAGED has a set of forms that can help organise and document the case conference.

7. MBS items for GPs

The CareSearch MBS items for General Practitioners webpage provides a list of MBS items which GPs can use to be paid for the palliative care they provide to patients.

8. Pathways and frameworks

To help coordinate the care of a patient with a life-limiting illness between health services the CareSearch Pathways and Frameworks webpage provides examples of care pathways, referral triggers and practical advice on care transitions.

9. Self-care

It is well recognised that providing palliative care can be challenging, and that it is important that those providing palliative care practise self-care. The CareSearch Self-care webpage enables you to plan and practice self-care.

10. Ongoing education

Building expertise in palliative care is easy with several options available through the CareSearch Ongoing education webpages which provide a wide range of education options.