A CED project team led the development of the new Care at End of Life campaign which aims to raise awareness about the importance of discussing and planning for care at the end of life.
The campaign features real clinicians who are speaking from a professional and personal point of view to assist Queenslanders with building a shared vocabulary about the topic, normalising discussion around death and dying, and motivating people to plan their care at the end of life. This may be in a formal or informal way.
In the next 25 years the number of Australians who die each year will double. In 2014-15, of the 30,000 people who died in Queensland, more than half (15,678) died in hospital. Although many people prefer to die at home, the uptake of advance care planning has been slow. Discussing and/or documenting choices for future healthcare maximises the likelihood that personal choices will be respected.
Research shows that although 90 per cent of people believe talking about care at the end of life is important, only 27 per cent have actually done so. Common barriers to end of life and advance care planning discussions are a lack of awareness and understanding about care at end of life as well as a lack of knowledge on where to find more information and documentation.
Find out more about the campaign or for detailed information on advance care planning, clinician resources and educational material, or for information for patients, carers and family visit the Queensland Health website.
