Tools: Victoria's Palliative Care Program - Department of Health, Victoria, Australia

Tools

Service delivery framework

The service delivery framework articulates how services should be distributed across metropolitan and regional Victoria, and identifies clear service expectations.

The aim of the service delivery framework is to:

provide a clear framework for assessing service capability
reduce unexplained variation in services across the state
articulate the roles and responsibilities of each service level to support client treatment and care, linkages, education and research in and across regions
establish statewide structures that support best practice.

The service delivery framework includes a service capability framework and forms an important part of the implementation of the Strengthening palliative care policy over 2011-2015 to ensure consistent access to palliative care and clearly establish service delivery expectations.

Background to the Service Delivery Framework (PDF file 244kb)

Final Interim Report Service Delivery Framework - Executive Summary - February 2010 (PDF file 549kb)

Final Interim Service Capability Statements - February 2010 (PDF file 225kb)

Service Delivery Framework Frequently Asked Questions (PDF file 111kb)

Service Mapping Report - July 2009 (PDF file 1.5mb)

SDF Literature Review (PDF file 661kb)

Service Coordination Tool Templates

The Service Coordination Tool Templates (SCTT) is a suite of templates developed to facilitate and support service coordination. The SCTT support the collection and recording of initial contact, initial needs identification, referral and coordinated care planning information in a standardised way. Using the SCTT can improve communication between service providers, the recording of information generated by screening and assessment processes, information sharing, and the quality of referrals and feedback between service providers.

The Palliative Care Supplement is available to assist workers to communicate additional information required for palliative care referrals.

Palliative Care Supplement - Service Coordination Tool Template (PDF file 117kb)

Role statements

All palliative care decision making groups are required to incorporate the role statements into their work, noting that not all aspects of the role statements are mandatory.

Role statements outline the roles, responsibilities, relationships and structure of the palliative care decision making groups in implementing Strengthening palliative care: Policy and strategic directions 2011-2015. The role statements are not intended to describe the full scope of work of services funded by the palliative care program. When considering the role statements all other relevant role statements should be taken into account.

A list of palliative care decision making groups is available at: www.health.vic.gov.au/palliativecare/services.htm

Clinical tools and resources

The Palliative Care Clinical Network currently oversees three projects that will enhance the availability of clinical tools and resources for palliative care in Victoria:

Clinical tools and outcome measures
The aim of this project is to develop a strategy to identify palliative care clinical assessment tools currently in use throughout the Victorian palliative care sector. The project will report and make recommendations for tools that may assist with the admission to and the ongoing co-ordination of specialist palliative care in a variety of clinical settings in Victoria.

Pain clinical indicator
This project aims to identify pain clinical indicators being used in the palliative care sector in Victoria and develop strategies to support implementation of the recommended clinical indicators, including development of assessment tools for measuring the indicators and an education resource about the recommended indicators.

Bereavement framework
The bereavement framework project will comprehensively document current bereavement models existing in the palliative care sector in Victoria and identify best practice bereavement care.

Volunteer standards

Volunteers make up approximately two-thirds of the palliative care workforce. Volunteers make a significant contribution to the care of people with life-limiting illness and their families. They are highly valued members of the palliative care workforce.

Documents have been developed to provide program standards and volunteer service standards and are designed to:

Foster greater awareness of the role of volunteers in palliative care
Support and promote volunteer engagement in palliative care
Limit organisation legal liability with regard to volunteer engagement in palliative care services
Assist organisations develop volunteer policies and principles.

Victorian palliative care volunteer standards - sample resource (MS Word doc, 529kb)

Victorian palliative care volunteer standards - sample resource (pdf, 398kb)

Victorian palliative care volunteer standards (pdf, 620kb)

After hours palliative care

Access to after-hours support is a requirement for all Victorian community palliative care services. In March 2009 two pilot projects were funded to to identify the models and elements of an after-hours service that could be rolled out to other services across the state. The pilot project period ended in June 2011. The palliative care team at Monash University evaluated the pilot projects.

After hours palliative care pilot projects evaluation report

The after-hours palliative care framework, which is informed by the findings of the pilot projects, is designed to assist palliative care consortia and palliative care services to develop models of after-hours support for their region. The framework includes resource documents, information technology specifications and a literature review.

After hours palliative care framework

Victoria's Palliative Care Program

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