The advance care planning guideline supports clinical staff to “have the conversation” with clients and caregivers about end of life decision making, engage clients and their families in decisions about their care and help them to undertake advance care planning.

Click here to download these guidelines.

To give Victorians confidence that their decisions about medical treatment will be respected, the Department of Health and Human Services has created the standard forms, which allow Victorians to:

• Make an advance care directive which can include an instructional directive (which will provide specific directives about treatment a person consents to or refuses) and/or a values directive (which will describe a person's views and values).

• Appoint a medical treatment decision-maker (who will make decisions on behalf of a person when they no longer have decision-making capacity).

• Appoint a support person (who will assist a person to make decisions for themselves, by collecting and interpreting information or assisting the person to communicate their decisions).

Click here to access the Advance Care Planning Forms.

The Medicine Handling guidelines, developed by caring@home can be used by community service providers to inform the development of detailed protocols and procedures tailored to the requirements of individual service.

Click here to access the caring@home Medicine Handling guidelines.

A palliative care emergency is a sudden and life-threatening clinical change in a patient with a life-limiting illness. It requires timely identification, rapid assessment and prompt management to ensure, where possible, rapid reversal of symptoms to promote preservation of quality of life.

Click here to download the Palliative CAre Emergencies Guidelines.

The Palliative Care Triage and Transfer form is an electronic referral form template.

Click here to download this form.

Palliative Care Service Assess & Management Flow Chart for GP’s is used to inform clinical practice, policies and procedures in health services.

Click here to download this form.

The National GSF Centre’s guidance for clinicians to support earlier identification of patients nearing the end of life, leading to improved proactive person-centred care.

Click here to view the Proactive Identification Guidance

Advance care planning allows health professionals to understand and respect a person's future healthcare preferences, for a time when they become seriously ill and unable to communicate for themselves. Advance Care Planning Australia provides Health Professionals with information about Advance care Planning.

Click here to visit the Advance Care Planning Australia website.

The caring@home project has developed a suite of tailored resources to support the provision of at-home palliative care symptom management. The Clinic Box includes hard copy resources for health professionals and families, a USB with training videos and practice demonstration kits to teach carers how to give subcutaneous medicines.

Click here it visit the Caring@home website

The purpose of this guide is to make going home safe and secure for patients and their families.

It is intended to support acute hospital staff in their discharge planning for all patients who are in the last twelve months of life. Patients may be stable, deteriorating, unstable or actively dying.

Click here to visit the Department of Health website.

The PCOC program is a framework and protocol for routine clinical assessment and response. By embedding the framework into routine clinical practice, a common clinical language is created. This helps identify and respond to needs. It also helps with improving access to palliative care, and generating consistent information to plan and deliver care.

Click here to access the PCOC program.

Caresearch brings together a range of resources and information to help the health care workforce find information on Understanding the complexities of palliative care with mental illness.

Click here to visit these Caresearch resources.

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) aims to improve palliative care patient and carer outcomes.

The PCOC program is a framework and protocol for routine clinical assessment and response. By embedding the framework into routine clinical practice, a common clinical language is created.

Click here for more information

The PCOC YouTube channel has a suite of short education videos.

Click here to be directed to the PCOC YouTube Channel

Palliative Care Australia’s (PCA) Discussion Starter series and Card packs have been developed to reach into communities to normalise early conversations about the end-of-life, rather than waiting until more time-critical or medical-focused discussions need to occur. The resources have been developed to help Australians work out what’s right for them if they were to become very sick or at the end of their lives.

Click here to access Palliative Care Australia’s discussion starters.

Improving Carer’s Quality of Life is a practical resource for health professionals working in palliative care services to fully understand the impact of the caring role.

It explains the complexities of practical issues impacting carers at home.

t has been developed by experts and tested by experienced palliative care clinicians through the Southern Metro Palliative Care Consortium.

Click here to download the Improving Carer’s Quality of Life. resource.

The SPICT tool, developed by the University of Edinburgh, is used to help identify people whose health is deteriorating. Asses them for unmet supportive and palliative care needs.

Click here to be directed to the SPICT website to access the new E-SPICT or to download latest version of the SPICT tool

The department of health website has a suite of resources for health professionals and consumers on Voluntary Assisted Dying.

Click here to visit the Department of Health Website.

The Gippsland Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator is based at Latrobe Regional Hospital. They are available to provide information and support regarding voluntary assisted dying for the community, health practitioners and health services across Gippsland.

For information or support, email vadsupport@lrh.com.au or call 0448 003 464

A short educational film produced by the Bacchus Marsh Community Palliative Care Service and Eagle Eye Films which includes real stories from three families who have been on this journey. The aim is to assist families who may be considering Voluntary Assisted Dying and as an educational tool for palliative care clinicians, GP’s and health professionals to better understand the VAD process.

Click here to view the short film

The Better Health Channel answers frequently asked questions on voluntary assisted dying.

Click here to visit the Better Health website.

This guidance has been developed to assist health practitioners to understand the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (the Act) and their roles and responsibilities in the voluntary assisted dying process.

Click here to download this guide.

The Government has established the Statewide Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator Service (care navigator service) to provide information and support regarding voluntary assisted dying for the community, health practitioners and health services across Victoria.

For information or support, email vadcarenavigator@petermac.org or call (03) 8559 5823 or 0436 848 344.

This fact sheet, developed by ELDAC outlines the laws in each state.

Click here to view the factsheet

Click here to view the paper