Strategic Plan 2018 2022
Pallative Care Victoria Palliative Care Victoria Palliative Care Victoria is the peak body for palliative care and end of life care. Established in 1981, we are an incorporated association and charity supported by the Victorian Government, organisation and individual members, other groups and funders. A founding and current member of Palliative Care Australia, we also contribute to national policies and initiatives in collaboration with the state and territory palliative care peak bodies. 2 01
Our Vision All people with a life limiting illness and their families are supported to live, die and grieve well. Our Values Respect We respect the value, dignity, and human rights of people with a life limiting illness and their families. Our Mission To advance our vision through empowering leadership, capacity building, and advocacy. Empowerment We empower people to prepare for dying, grief and loss, and to be supportive and resilient. Integrity We are truthful and ethical in all that we say and do. Compassion We foster compassionate communities and the quality of life of people with a life limiting illness and their families. 02 03
Pallative Care Victoria The Next Four Years This strategic plan outlines our key objectives and activities for 2018 to 2022. It has been informed by our 2017 community awareness survey, issues raised by people with a life limiting illness and their carers, engagement with our members and partners, and policy directions (including Victoria s end of life and palliative care framework). Everyone has an important role in achieving our vision. This plan reflects our intention to complement the contributions of others. We have chosen to focus on specific areas where we can lead and collaborate to add value and have maximum impact. This approach is more sustainable given our size and resources. 04 05
Strategic Challenges Our Objectives Although the incidence of life limiting illness and death is increasing due to our ageing population and increasing chronic disease, our communities and our health and care services are not yet well prepared for this inevitable part of life and human experience. We need to: - Address fears of dying and lack of preparation for this stage of life. - Improve community understanding of palliative care and the natural dying process. - Meet current and growing needs for palliative care, with equitable and timely access to well-coordinated, person-centred services. - Improve choice on the place of care and death and support for carers. 1. Empowered consumers, carers and compassionate communities. 2. Specialist palliative care benefits individuals and health services. 3. Diversity-inclusive and diversity-responsive palliative care. 4. Expanded, innovative and valued volunteering contributions. - Equip healthcare professionals to provide palliative care and integrate palliative care into all relevant health and care services. - Ensure specialist palliative care expertise is available to care for people with complex needs and to build palliative care capacity in all healthcare services. 06 07
Ojective 1. Empowered consumers, carers and compassionate communities Fear, isolation and silence are common experiences of people when facing life limiting illness, caring, grief and loss. We need to provide opportunities for people to address their fears, to prepare for these inevitable life experiences, to know what to say and do, and how to be supportive of one another when it matters most. Priority Focus We will facilitate empowered consumers, carers and compassionate communities through: - Community awareness campaigns and participation in community events. - Community capacity building activities such as supporting people with a life limiting illness and their caregivers, discussing what matters most when death is expected, and supporting people facing grief and loss. - Collaboration with community groups, particularly those with strong networks that will increase our reach and impact. - Training staff and volunteers to deliver these capacity building activities through their networks. 08 09
Ojective 2. Specialist palliative care benefits individuals and health services Priority Focus As other participants in the specialist palliative care sector have leading roles and expertise in relation to professional education, service delivery, quality improvement and research, our contributions will focus on: Victoria s end of life and palliative care framework aims to strengthen the specialist palliative care sector and to use its specialist workforce more effectively. This sector plays an important role in caring for people with complex needs, enabling all healthcare staff to deliver the benefits of palliative care, and realising the framework s goal of coordinated and integrated person-centred healthcare. - Advocacy to support a strong, vibrant and innovative specialist palliative care sector in Victoria. We will also work with Palliative Care Australia to inform national policies and programs. - Responding to numerous public requests for assistance in accessing palliative care services. - Facilitating linkages and forums to improve timely, coordinated and integrated access to palliative care for under-served populations; we will give priority to chronic diseases that are leading causes of death. - Providing palliative care resources for healthcare providers to use with consumers and carers. - Providing opportunities for specialist palliative care and other healthcare services to contribute to our other strategic objectives - such as our community engagement, capacity building and innovation activities. - Providing information updates, networking opportunities, and support to our members. 10 11
Ojective 3. Diversity-inclusive and diversity-responsive palliative care The evolving diversity of Victoria s growing population includes aboriginality, ethnicity, culture, language, sexuality and gender identity, special needs, relative disadvantage and geographic location. This diversity requires healthcare services to embed systematic and sustained strategies for inclusive and responsive palliative care by: understanding diversity, removing barriers to access, workforce capacity building, and empowering and inclusive approaches in the design and delivery of services. Collaboration and capacity building is also needed to facilitate access by diverse groups to inclusive and responsive palliative care. Priority Focus We will contribute to diversity-inclusive and diversity-responsive palliative care by: - Collaborating with the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria and ethnic community organisations to prioritise, co-design and implement strategies to improve access to inclusive and responsive palliative care. - Contributing to activities by the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation to improve access to inclusive and responsive palliative care. - Assisting with relevant capacity building activities by healthcare services to provide inclusive and responsive palliative care. 12 13
Ojective 4. Expanded, innovative and valued volunteering contributions Volunteers are compassionate communities in action. They facilitate community engagement and capacity building and improve the quality of life of people with life limiting illnesses and their families. We need to expand, diversify and strengthen these volunteer contributions in all communities, healthcare services and care settings. Priority Focus Our activities to expand, diversity and strengthen volunteering will include: - Providing professional development for managers of volunteers and train the trainer strategies. - Community engagement and capacity building. - Collaborating with relevant volunteer-involving networks and services. - Promoting the value of volunteering and its impact. - Advocacy for increased support to expand volunteering. - Facilitating and promoting innovative volunteering. - Training and supporting Palliative Care Victoria volunteer ambassadors. 14 15
Our Approach We will collaborate, build capacity and advocate to provide empowering leadership that advances our vision and strategic objectives. Build Capacity Capacity building empowers others and increases the impact of our work. We propose to: Collaborate We will collaborate with Palliative Care Australia and a diverse range of people, communities and organisations across Victoria to facilitate our vision and strategic objectives, including: - Relevant peak bodies representing consumers, carers, volunteers, Aboriginal communities, ethnic communities, rural and regional communities. - Community groups and networks, such as: ethnic community organisations, neighbourhood houses, seniors groups, community services and support groups. - Develop and deliver co-designed capacity building training programs and resources. We will use a train the trainer approach, where possible, as this creates ownership by other groups to replicate the capacity building work via their networks. - Invite expressions of interest for collaborative innovations relevant to our strategic objectives, supported by seed funding and innovation capacity building workshops. We will prioritise and stage our capacity building activities as resources allow. - Health and care sector, including: the specialist palliative care sector, chronic disease groups, Primary Health Networks, aged care and disability services. - Funders and policy makers, including: Department of Health and Human Services, Municipal Association of Victoria, philanthropic trusts. 16 17
Pallative Care Victoria Our Approach Advocate We will undertake advocacy work to advance our vision and strategic objectives. This will involve: - Engaging effectively and creatively with consumers, carers, our members, decision makers, and other key stakeholders to ensure diverse voices and experiences inform our advocacy. - Making compelling, evidence-based representations to government and other relevant decision makers to gain their support for actions to advance our vision and strategic objectives. - Demonstrating the quality of life and economic benefits of palliative care, supported by personal stories. - Gaining the support and influence of others for our cause - such as media, superannuation funds, health insurers, high profile ambassadors, etc. 18 19
Level 2, 182 Victoria Parade East Melbourne VIC 3002 T (03) 9662 9644 F (03) 9662 9722 E info@pallcarevic.asn.au W www.pallcarevic.asn.au F www.facebook.com/palliativecarevictoria Twitter @pallcarevic Reg. Incorp. No A0022429M ABN 88 819 011 622