The Gwandalan Project, Supporting Palliative Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, was delivered over three years by the Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL) in collaboration with Palliative Care South Australia. Gwandalan, from the Darkinjung and Awaba language, means rest or peace. In the context of the project, it represents the spiritual aspect of the palliative and end-of-life journey, emphasising the hope for a peaceful spirit resulting from quality palliative care and a dignified death.

Within the project, AGPAL co-developed a suite of tailored education and training materials to support cultural safety within palliative care services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples during the returning to Spirit journey. Those materials supported relationships between service providers, frontline staff and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities through cross-cultural education and the sharing of knowledge. This was achieved through the provision of education and training to support increased capacity in those who care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples during their palliative and end-of-life journey. Rather than addressing clinical content, the emphasis was on culturally safe and responsive care, empowering frontline staff to contextualise care for Indigenous communities. The key objectives were:

• Improve the quality of palliative care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by building capacity in frontline staff to deliver care that is culturally relevant and safe,
• Promote access to and uptake of palliative care services by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through improved community awareness and understanding of palliative care, by building capacity in frontline staff to share knowledge around palliative care services,
• Support more choice during palliative care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, through the sharing of knowledge by frontline staff, to increase uptake of advance care planning, and
• Support the delivery of coordinated, culturally relevant and safe palliative care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across community and acute care settings.

Deliverables included:

• Community Engagement Strategy
• 5x60-minute eLearning modules aimed at the frontline health workforce (Modules topics include: Introduction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Palliative Care and Cultural Practice, Safe Communication, Supporting Choices at the End-of-Life, Strengthening Relationships and Community Engagement.
• Digital toolkit (Dillybag) for the frontline health workforce, including micro-learning resources for consumers at the point of care.
• 11 x 60 webinars on appropriate topics
• AGPAL developed bespoke eLearning platform

The Gwandalan Project was funded by the Australian Government under the Public Health and Chronic Disease Care Grant, National Palliative Care Projects 2020-2023.