Active & Healthy Ageing

Enabling Better Care at the End of Life for the Central Coast Community

complete
START August, 2019
END September, 2022
FUNDER Medical Research Future Fund Rapid Applied Translation Grant
VALUE $300,000
PROJECT TEAM Professor Nick Goodwin (CPI), Dr Sally Carr (CI), Dr Cassie Curryer, Daneill Davis (CI), Dr Thomas Osborne (CI), Dr Sarah Jeong (CI), Dr Suzanne Lewis (CI), and Dr Zoi Triandafilidis.
CONTACT Professor Nick Goodwin
nicholas.goodwin@newcastle.edu.au
PARTNERS Central Coast LHD, NSW Regional Health Partners
SUMMARY

This project aimed to support the development of a long-term strategy for the implementation of integrated palliative and end-of-life care services to the Central Coast community. The first phase of the project comprised a series of five stakeholder workshops that examined existing service issues, gaps and key priorities for research projects to be taken forward in the second phase. From these workshops, three clinically led research projects were identified and delivered between July 2021 and September 2022:

  • Improving the End-of-Life Care Journey for People with Dementia and their Carers
  • Improving the Experience of Central Coast Residents and Carers who Access Emergency Care Towards the End of Life
  • Models of Care to Support People with Dementia at the End of Life – Rapid Review
OUTCOMES
  • Findings have supported the submission for Enhancing End of Life Care funding from the Ministry of Health (including dedicated funding for a dementia care coordinator position), as well as the design of the new Palliative Care Unit at Wyong.
  • Results from the project have been published open access in Palliative Medicine, in a blogpost for CareSearch, and presented at 18 conferences (including several international conferences, and an invited presentation). Awards were given for poster presentations at the Palliative Care NSW 2022 Conference (Jessica MacDonald, Palliative Medicine Advanced Trainee) and the 2022 CCLHD Research and Innovation Symposium (Suzanne Lewis, Chief Investigator).
  • Project Lead, Daneill Davis, was awarded Allied Health Researcher of the Year at the CCLHD Excellence in Allied Health Awards 2022, and the project is a finalist for the Central Coast Local Health District Caring for the Coast Awards.
  • Stakeholders involved reported increased research capacity and culture and research activity following the project, and discuss the project in a video series here – link YouTube videos