Bass Coast residents have access to high-quality palliative care when and where they need it thanks to
the experienced and trained Palliative Care Team at Bass Coast Health (BCH).
National Palliative Care Week is from Sunday 22 May to Saturday 28 May, with the theme, Palliative
Care It’s your right.
This year’s theme seeks to broaden the community’s perceptions, understanding and appreciation of
palliative care.
Palliative care supports people with a life-limiting illness and their families to live, die and grieve well.
It can help someone to live well with a serious illness that is likely to shorten their life. It aims to make
them comfortable, improve their quality of life, and support family and friends caring for them.
Palliative care offers expert care to relieve a person's pain and suffering, and to respond to their
social, emotional, cultural, and spiritual needs. It also provides choices and helps them to make
important decisions about their care.
“With adequate access to timely palliative care, people with a life-limiting illness are able to keep
doing what they love with friends and family for as long as possible,” BCH’s Palliative Care Clinical
Nurse Consultant Anita Crank said.
Palliative Care at BCH has a multidisciplinary approach that includes nurses, doctors and allied health
professionals that work across Wonthaggi Hospital, San Remo, Phillip Island Health Hub and into our
clients’ homes.
Anita said palliative care workers at BCH have a deep understanding of the difficult situations people
near the end of their life or with a life-limiting illness often face.
“They can be instrumental in balancing a variety of perspectives and incorporating the psychological,
social, and spiritual concerns of patients, their families and the staff caring for them,” she said.
“They are also there to support the loved ones of people near the end of their life and help them live
through their grief and bereavement.”
Nurses are trained in therapeutic communication to identify patients’ goals of care, their need for
information, assistance in the relief of pain and symptoms, and to provide an opportunity to disclose
feelings, an ability to maintain a sense of control, and a need for knowing that their life had meaning
and purpose.
“Communication needs of family members include the need for information, permission to speak and
to be listened to as they face the decline and death of their loved one,” Anita said.
BCH provides palliative care in all areas: to hospital inpatients, residential aged care residents across
Bass Coast Shire and clients in the community through the BCH District Nursing and Palliative Care
Service.
The District Nursing and Palliative Care Service provides palliative care in the client’s home from early
diagnosis through to end-of-life care.
“Symptom management, support and education to both the client and their carer/s and liaising with
the appropriate medical team when required are the main focuses in palliative care,” said Rebecca
Gysberts, Acting Nurse Unit Manager District Nursing and Palliative Care.
Anita provides palliative care support and advice to staff and to people requiring palliative care. She
also connects palliative care services within the organisation and with external services.
BCH is a member of the Gippsland Region Palliative Care Consortium to ensure access to specialist palliative care services through working relationships with the Gippsland Regional Palliative Care Consultancy Service (GRPCCS).
“We are extremely lucky and grateful to have Kelly Koschade, Nurse Practitioner from GRPCCS, attend BCH on a weekly basis,” Anita said.
“Kelly attends to clinical reviews as needed for complex symptom management, provides clinical support/advice to BCH medical practitioners and community GPs, and participates in fortnightly multidisciplinary team meetings where individual client care is reviewed to ensure that the best possible care is being given.
“Dr Ahmed Nagla, a Palliative Care Physician, is also available through GRPCCS, providing phone support/advice to medical practitioners where needed.”
Palliative care patient Margaret Welsh was complimentary of the service.
“Palliative care is absolutely brilliant, so much help it’s unbelievable. I am so grateful for the help I have received,” she said.
For further information about community palliative care at Bass Coast Health, contact the District Nursing and Intake team: 5671 9219 or district.nursing@basscoasthealth.org.au
For palliative care assistance in the inpatient or aged care setting, contact Anita Monday to Thursday, 8am–4.30pm on 5671 9245 or email: anita.crank@basscoasthealth.org.au