PACOP is a national palliative care program that provides a clinical framework, education and service reports to participating residential aged care providers. Learn more about the programs development, objectives, and our team.
PACOP supporting Aged Care Homes in optimal palliative care for their residents, families & staff
Meet Joy. Joy is one of many older Australians who use residential aged care services. Joy recently moved into an aged care home as she's become more frail and she needs more support in her day-to-day life. Joy's aged care home is participating in PACOP the Palliative Aged Care Outcomes Program. PACOP was developed at, and sits within, the University of Wollongong and is fully funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. PACOP has a national approach to systematically improve palliative and end-of-life care for residents living in aged care and their families. The final report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety identified palliative and end-of-life care as core business for aged care providers. It recommended that high quality palliative care should be addressed through upskilling staff, implementing clinical processes and governance for early recognition of deterioration and dying in older persons. PACOP supports aged care homes to implement high quality palliative and end-of-life care through the use of two components; the Profile Collection and the Outcomes Collection. The Profile Collection is the core component of PACOP and supports early identification of deterioration and palliative and end-of-life care needs. Aged care homes implement a framework of routine standardised assessment of residents every 3 months and at times of concern. This ensures no significant changes in Joy's health will go unnoticed. Routine monitoring and screening for escalating care needs within an aged care home's population supports aged care providers and staff to understand needs, both at a service level and at an individual level, for residents and their families and carers. When residents like Joy have identified palliative care needs they are then commenced into the second component of PACOP; the Outcomes Collection. The Outcomes Collection provides point of care assessments of palliative care needs including symptom distress and problems experienced by the resident and their family or carer and is supported by an evidence-based clinical response protocol that guides timely responses for aged care staff to address identified needs. In this collection, outcomes from the care provided are reported back to aged care homes for continuous quality improvement projects. PACOP assessments are entered into an IT system where key clinical information including assessment scores are deidentified and then sent to PACOP every 6 months through a secure online submission portal. The data is then analysed and a report is returned to the aged care home and aged care provider. This report feedback allows aged care providers to monitor trends in resident care and identify areas to improve services for residents and their families and carers. These areas can then be measured for improvement in the next report cycle. State and National reports will also be made available and in time National benchmarks for optimal palliative care standards in aged care will be developed. PACOP is implemented using a train the trainer model ensuring sustainability of workforce training and engagement with staff in aged care homes. PACOP provides ongoing access to a wide variety of free education and training resources which provides flexibility and supports aged care homes to develop education activities that are suitable for their staff and resources. PACOP provides ongoing support to participating aged care homes through a Community of Practice model and linking aged care providers with specialist palliative care services and palliative Care educational and advocacy organisations within their community. Participation in PACOP allows aged care homes to develop a body of evidence demonstrating ongoing quality improvement initiatives and evidence of working towards achievement of national aged care quality standards. PACOP participation is free and supports the delivery of optimal palliative care through collaboration with residents their families and carers, aged care staff and aged care organisations to improve quality of life and palliative and end-of-life care outcomes. You can find out more about PACOP's free program and resources via the PACOP website where you can submit an inquiry to be connected with the PACOP team.
