For patients receiving palliative care, their families and carers
What is Palliative Care?
The WA Cancer and Palliative Care Network is actively working towards an integrated statewide model of palliative care in Western Australia.
Palliative Care, as defined by the World Health Organisation, “is an approach that aims to improve the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with life-threatening illness. This is achieved through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of the early identification, impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems.
Palliative care:
- Provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms
- Affirms life and regards dying as a normal process
- Intends neither to hasten nor postpone death
- Integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patent care
- Offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death
- Offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement
- Uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated
- Will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness
- Is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations.
WA lcp (WA Liverpool Care Pathway)
The WA lcp, adaped from the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (UK) (external site) Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient, has been introduced into hospital sites throughout Western Australia. It guides treatment in a patient’s last few days or hours of life. The pathway supports patients to die with dignity and also to ensure that relatives and carers are fully supported and cared for. If the patient’s health improves then the pathway is withdrawn.
The WA lcp assists the patient’s health team to provide the best quality of care at a time that is very difficult for everyone involved. It provides guidance around communication, psychological and spiritual care, improving comfort, assessing pain, commencing required medications and ceasing unnecessary interventions. All of these measures are underpinned by the importance of caring for the patient and their family.
For further information, please contact the Palliative Care Network on 1800 998 021
Advance Health Directives
Advance Health Directives are legal documents in which adults can set out in writing their decisions about future treatment. They are used in all Australian states and territories but take on different forms and names.
The decision to prepare an Advance Health Directive is a very personal one. Find more information on the current Western Australian Advance Health Directives.Palliative Care Resources
Palliative Care Models of Care
- Paediatric and Adolescent Palliative Care (PDF 394KB)
- Palliative care (PDF 533KB)
- Rural palliative care (PDF 410KB)
Palliative Care Resources for Consumers
- Palliative Care Medicine and Symptom Guide (PDF 3.08MB)
- Child Respite - Information for Families (PDF 1.1MB)
- WA lcp: Information Sheet for Patients and Families (PDF 40KB)
- Caresearch (external site)
- Palliative Care Australia (external site)
- Palliative Care Western Australia (external site)
File formats
Some documents for download on this website are in a Portable Document Format (PDF). To read these files you might need to download Adobe® Acrobat Reader.