Many Australians say that they would like to be cared for, and die, at home but most do not.

There are many reasons for unwanted transfer to hospital including, but not exclusive of, limited end-of-life planning and communication and inability to manage physical symptoms for the home-based palliative patient.

How can caring@home help?

caring@home aims to increase access to quality and timely end-of-life care for patients who choose to be cared for, and die at home, if possible.

caring@home develops and provides nationally consistent, practical and evidence-based clinical resources and education for health professionals to support proactive end-of-life care planning with families and carers and to support families and carers to help manage end-of-life symptoms at home.

Who are caring@home resources for?

The caring@home resources and education are for health professionals. Many of the resources are used by health professionals to teach carers and families of home-based patients how to manage symptoms.

caring@home resources are applicable Australia-wide and are freely available.

Activities in 2023-2026

Develop resources for:

• Clinical services: policy, procedures and guidelines
• Health professionals:
  » to support a proactive approach to end-of-life care
  » to manage the transition of goals of care from curative to palliative care
  » to support effective management of end-of-life symptoms
  » to promote quality improvement
• Carers and families: to help manage end-of-life symptoms for home-based patients

Provide education for health professionals

• Workshops and webinars

Promote the resources

• Communication, engagement and marketing activities
• Collaboration with National Palliative Care Projects, e.g., iPEPA, ECHO, Caresearch

Undertake evaluation.

caring@home is a National Palliative Care project, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care and undertaken by a consortium led by Brisbane South Palliative Care Collaborative.