COVID-19 response

Given the rapidly unfolding situation with the spread of COVID-19, we would like to assure you that the health and wellbeing of our team, our individual and organisational members, and members of our extended community is a priority for Palliative Care WA.

Taking into account the advice and information provided by WA Health, we have made some changes to our workflow as well as our events and activities as outlined below.

Resources

We are currently working to develop suitable resources to assist the palliative care and aged care sectors during this situation. We will also be developing resources to assist community members with advance care planning and the delivery of palliative care. All resources will be added to the dedicated webpage on our site as they become available.  We invite you to tell us what kind of resources you need by emailing us on info@palliativecarewa.asn.au.

Community workshops

We have suspended our Advance Care Planning community workshops program for the time being. We are very aware that during this time, the need to carry out advance care planning is as important as ever and therefore we are working on other ways to provide appropriate information and resources. Our plan is to reinstate the workshops program as soon as it is safe to do so.

Sector events

• • We have cancelled the 2020 National Palliative Care Week sector breakfast which was scheduled for 26 May.
  • The current advice from Palliative Care Australia is that National Palliative Care Week is still going ahead with activities delivered online.
  • Resources for National Palliative Care Week will therefore still be distributed. Given these can be used throughout the year you may wish to place an order here. If anything changes we will let you know.
  • We have put our plans for the 2020 Palliative Care WA Awards and Gala dinner on hold and will make a reassessment later in the year.

Sector support

With the understanding that the core patient population for palliative care is more susceptible to COVID-19, we are acutely aware of the pressure our members will be under in the coming months.  To be able to provide opportunities for discussion and support within palliative care and aged care, we are currently investigating the possibility of being able to hold short sector forums and briefings via dial-up. We will let you know that outcome as soon as possible.

In these unprecedented times we strongly urge everyone in the community and the sector to seek information on COVID-19 from reputable sources and recommend accessing the advice provided by the Federal and State Governments.

On a personal note we believe this is truly a time for us all to put into practice the values of a compassionate community – one that looks out for each other and looks after those who need some help.

           Lana Glogowski

          CEO, Palliative Care WA