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BACKGROUND: Nearly a decade ago, ‘Palliative care is everyone’s business’ was the theme of Australia’s national palliative care week. If palliative care truly is everyone’s business, then everyone should have access to public education about the philosophy and principles of palliative care.

 

AIM: To develop and deliver innovative public palliative care education programs in Australia.

 

METHODS: Viewing palliative care through a public health lens, we investigated the existing options of public education and identified Last Aid as a model of interest. Last Aid is an international education course delivered over four hours and comprises four standardised topics. Instructor training and licensing to deliver Last Aid in Australia was obtained. To complement and build upon Last Aid, we developed eight further public education courses to form the PalliLEARN fundamentals series. These one-hour courses provide accessible courses (online or face-to-face) that enable the expansion of public education to regional areas and when face-to-face activities are not possible.

 

RESULTS: Last Aid has been implemented in SA and QLD. With national support, PalliLEARN is currently being implemented in SA, QLD and the ACT. This presentation will provide a summary of their development, together with a stage 1 implementation activity summary of both Last Aid and PalliLEARN in Australia.

 

CONCLUSION: Viewing palliative care through a public health lens requires that we include and empower the public in better understanding the philosophy and principles of palliative care. Improved access to public palliative care education can be achieved through the development and implementation of innovative programs such as Last Aid and PalliLEARN.