Page 224 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 26 February 2014
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(b) continue to implement recommendations from the ACT Local Hospital Network Council’s End-of-Life Issues and Decision Making Forum that was held in May 2013; and
(c) seriously consider the report resulting from the September 2013 Palliative Care Conference as well as that from next month’s End of Life forum.
It is in the interests of the entire community—the elderly, those with chronic illness, carers, families and the health system itself—that we create a more open culture of talking about the end of life. And in recent months the ACT community has begun to speak with greater openness and maturity about death and the process of dying. It is a sad part of life, but it is inevitable. It will happen to us all. It is in the interests of the entire community—as I said, those of us who are older, those with chronic or life threatening illness, carers, families and the health system itself—that we do create this culture.
My own experience of some years ago—watching my mother die in a four-bed ward in an aged-care facility with no palliative care available, and no choice, and more recently being with my husband and his family while we sat with his father, thankfully afforded palliative care—obviously has influenced my thinking.
The ACT government is leading this discussion in our community. It is important that we all talk about the issues with our communities and with our families—to talk about what we want, what we do not want and what we value—when we or our loved ones are facing the end of their life.
The ACT Local Hospital Network Council helped to start this conversation by hosting the end-of-life issues and decision-making forum on Saturday, 4 May last year. The forum was an extremely constructive event and, although many different opinions were shared, there was a strong consensus that everyone should be able to make decisions about their end-of-life care and should be supported by a system that respects their wishes. At the completion of the forum, the local hospital network made a number of recommendations and work has already progressed on a number of these. Importantly, the ACT government has backed up advocacy with action.
Palliative care is an area that will experience a growth in demand as our population ages, and we need to respond to this challenge now so that people can receive the care and dignity they deserve at the end of their life.
It was pleasing to see that Palliative Care Australia held a comprehensive conference in September last year. Keynote addresses and papers were presented at that 12th Australian Palliative Care conference by practitioners, academics and researchers with obvious qualifications in the area. Once again, I believe, and the ACT government believes, that the right thing to do by our community is to talk about these issues and continue to support and enable the most compassionate and dignified palliative care possible.
That is why, on 28 October last year, the Chief Minister released the ACT palliative care services plan 2013-17. This plan incorporates strategies for new and emerging
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