This year’s theme, “What’s Your Plan?”, is a timely reminder to patients, families, and health professionals to think about and discuss what matters most at the end of life. These conversations—and the plans that follow—are vital to ensuring that people receive care aligned with their values, preferences, and dignity.

Every day in Australia, approximately 400 people die of a terminal illness, many without access to the palliative care they need. The role of general practitioners and primary care teams is central to changing this.

At SEMPHN, we fund and support a range of initiatives aimed at improving access to coordinated, compassionate, and community-based palliative care.

Our key palliative care supports include:

Advance Care Planning

Advance care planning allows individuals to make decisions about the care they would—or would not—want to receive in the event they become seriously ill and can no longer communicate their wishes. It’s a fundamental part of quality palliative care and shared decision-making.

Explore our Advance Care Planning page for guides, forms, and information.

Palliative Care Access to Core Medicines (PCAM) Project

Many people wish to die at home. One major barrier to this is timely access to essential medicines. The PCAM project, delivered in partnership with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and Melbourne’s metropolitan PHNs, helps overcome this barrier by:

• Creating a Core Medicines List (CML) for end-of-life care
• Mapping participating community pharmacies stocking these medicines
• Supporting health professionals with free webinars and education

 Find out more on our PCAM page.

Community Palliative Care Visits for General Practice

To better integrate general practice with community-based palliative care, SEMPHN and the Southern Metropolitan Region Palliative Care Consortium (SMRPCC) offer practices the opportunity to host in-person visits from community palliative care teams.
 These visits provide:

• Education on referral pathways
• Clinical advice and consultation
• Resources to support earlier identification of patients with palliative care needs.
  

There are just 4 spots remaining in this popular program! Request a visit via our Palliative Care webpage or express your interest here.

Why this matters

For health professionals, particularly GPs, this week marks a powerful opportunity to start conversations that can shape someone’s quality of life when living with a life-limiting or terminal illness.

Support and resources

• Visit our Palliative Care webpage for tools, resources, and referral guidance.
• For further support or more information, please contact our Palliative Care Team at palliativecare@semphn.org.au.
• Learn more about the national campaign at palliativecare.org.au