Background:

The National Partnership Agreement for Comprehensive Palliative Care in Aged Care (NPA CPCiAC) seeks to strengthen national and state efforts to improve end-of-life and palliative care (EOL&PC) for Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) residents, their families and carers, and links with The Royal Commission into Aged Care, Quality and Safety findings.

Aim:

Identify and deliver projects against the NPA CPCiAC using a program logic approach (PLA).

Method:

Building on preliminary consultations with key stakeholders, a sector-wide consultation and targeted GP consultation identified challenges, opportunities and innovation for EOL&PC in the state’s RACFs.

A robust PLA was undertaken to map the NPA CPCiAC. The PLA and consultation outcomes informed the identification, development and commissioning of nine projects across the state for allocation of funds prioritised on need.

Evaluation mechanisms were developed for each project in line with the PLA to capture meaningful performance indicators and demonstrate impact and success of the projects.

Findings:

The PLA steered the identification and development of projects that expand evidence-based models of care and/or support innovative approaches to embed quality EOL&PC to meet the needs of residents, their families and carers.

A congested landscape resulted in challenges to development and implementation of projects. This included initiatives from a range of entities competing for RACF and GP time who were also looking to address Royal Commission findings.

However, data indicates the innovative models identified by the PLA are benefitting care coordination and education access at RACFs, with some projects still in early implementation due to the challenges.

Conclusions: 

Challenges have required projects to be innovative and agile to create or adapt models that meet the needs of RACFs, providers and the community in the current climate. A PLA optimised the identification and development of projects to meet state need and has been key in supporting responsiveness.