Better access to palliative care!
Better access to palliative care!
The issue
Without action, our future is one of diminishing care for people and families living and dying with terminal illness.
Current data presents a confronting picture of access to the quality of life at the end of life that palliative care offers.
Right now, every day in Australia, around 400 people die of terminal illnesses like heart disease, dementia, and cancer. All people with a terminal illness need and deserve access to palliative care - it is a human right, yet three in five people (62%) do not receive specialist palliative care at any stage.
Our ageing population adds to the urgency. Conservatively estimated, 92% of people who die in residential aged care would benefit from palliative care, yet only 3% of people living in residential aged care see a palliative medicine specialist in the first year following admission, while only a third of those entering residential aged care receive a GP health assessment or care planning within their first year.
The vision of the Aged Care Royal Commission was that palliative care be embedded in aged care - progress is too slow in achieving that.
If you see Australia as a compassionate community that respects the needs of those living with a terminal illness please show your support for Palliative Care Australia's plan for 'better access to palliative care' and sign this petition.
Our plan can be viewed on the PCA website and includes better access to palliative care via local GPs and nurses and aged care services, better access for people under 65 living with disability as a result of terminal illness, and better access to critical palliative care medicines.
If we don't fix this, people will continue to be admitted to hospital for care they could receive in their home, and people will continue to have limits placed on their end of life choices.
The issue
Without action, our future is one of diminishing care for people and families living and dying with terminal illness.
Current data presents a confronting picture of access to the quality of life at the end of life that palliative care offers.
Right now, every day in Australia, around 400 people die of terminal illnesses like heart disease, dementia, and cancer. All people with a terminal illness need and deserve access to palliative care - it is a human right, yet three in five people (62%) do not receive specialist palliative care at any stage.
Our ageing population adds to the urgency. Conservatively estimated, 92% of people who die in residential aged care would benefit from palliative care, yet only 3% of people living in residential aged care see a palliative medicine specialist in the first year following admission, while only a third of those entering residential aged care receive a GP health assessment or care planning within their first year.
The vision of the Aged Care Royal Commission was that palliative care be embedded in aged care - progress is too slow in achieving that.
If you see Australia as a compassionate community that respects the needs of those living with a terminal illness please show your support for Palliative Care Australia's plan for 'better access to palliative care' and sign this petition.
Our plan can be viewed on the PCA website and includes better access to palliative care via local GPs and nurses and aged care services, better access for people under 65 living with disability as a result of terminal illness, and better access to critical palliative care medicines.
If we don't fix this, people will continue to be admitted to hospital for care they could receive in their home, and people will continue to have limits placed on their end of life choices.
Victory
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Decision makers
Anthony AlbanesePrime Minister of Australia
Mark ButlerMinister for Health and Aged Care
The supporters
Featured comments
I care deeply about this issue and the urgent need for change in palliative care. My wonderful father — a man of integrity, community, mateship, family, and honour — lived a life of service and respect. Yet, in his final days, he was treated without dignity or compassion in a hospital setting that failed to provide even the most basic level of care. The trauma of witnessing his suffering and this lack of care has stayed with me every single day for the past eight years. No one should have to go through what he did - and no family should be left with that kind of pain. We must do better.
It was Mahatma Ghandi who said “A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” When I reflect on the palliative care situation here in Australia I see that we as a nation have a long way to go, everyone deserves a quality of end-of-life, it should not be a privilege, it should be a right!
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Petition created on 4 November 2024