Specialist palliative care: Current and future service challenges

Introduction/Background: Those working in palliative care face several current challenges, including: to reach beyond cancer and the physical to other dimensions of care; to start much earlier than at terminal stages of illness; to extend from specialist services to generalists; and to support primary carers. Research Question: How well does the Calvary Health Care Bethlehem (CHCB) model of specialist palliative care tackle these challenges? Methodology: We conducted a mixed‐method, multi‐perspective study in which thirty palliative care patients and their nominated carers and health care professionals (HCPs) were interviewed over a six month period. HCPs also participated in focus groups. Results were analysed using a thematic content analysis framework. HCP accounts of the CHCB service were used to construct a narrative description of the CHCB model of specialist palliative care. Policy Implications: Recent policy reports from the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and the Productivity Commission’s draft report Caring for Older Australians advocated greater use of coordination and teamwork in palliative care. This study helps define what this might mean in practice