Community focused and impact driven - how our Palliative Care Statewide Clinical Network Co-leads have been making a difference in South Australia

On account of Nation­al Pal­lia­tive Care Week, a cru­cial nation­al ini­tia­tive led by Pal­lia­tive Care Aus­tralia, Peter All­croft, one of our Net­work Leads and Kate Sweten­ham, Direc­tor of Nurs­ing, End of Life Care at the Depart­ment of Health and Well­be­ing (DHW), joined FiveAA radio for an insight­ful dis­cus­sion, delv­ing into var­i­ous aspects of end-of-life care.

In July, Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty marked a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone: 30 years of excel­lence in Pal­lia­tive Care edu­ca­tion, research, and pro­grams. Rep­re­sent­ing the Pal­lia­tive Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work, Peter and Kathryn attend­ed the event, along­side Kate Sweten­ham (who was also a speak­er at the event), and Shy­la Mills, CEO of Pal­lia­tive Care SA.

Oth­er alum­ni speak­ers included:

• Melis­sa Cum­ming, Direc­tor of Can­cer and Pal­lia­tive Care Ser­vices, Far West Local Health Dis­trict, NSW
• Celia Marston, Clin­i­cal Lead, Occu­pa­tion­al Therapy,
• Peter Mac­Cal­lum Can­cer Centre
• Con­sumer Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Meg Brazil

Each speak­er show­cased the knowl­edge and skills they had cul­ti­vat­ed through their edu­ca­tion at Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty, empha­sis­ing the impact they have made on the deliv­ery of pal­lia­tive care ser­vices.

A key take­away from the event was the pow­er of per­se­ver­ance. Despite per­son­al chal­lenges, set­backs, and lim­it­ed resources, each indi­vid­u­al’s ded­i­ca­tion to pal­lia­tive care has yield­ed sub­stan­tial ben­e­fits for their respec­tive com­mu­ni­ties. As the say­ing goes, ​‘From lit­tle seeds, big things grow.’

Kathryn and Peter suc­cess­ful­ly co-orga­nised a com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment event in Camp­bell­town Coun­cil, led by Tra­cy John­stone, Man­ag­er of Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices & Social Devel­op­ment. The event drew a strong turnout, focus­ing on cru­cial top­ics like time­ly pal­lia­tive care refer­rals, advance care plan­ning, car­er sup­port, and liv­ing well with a life-lim­it­ing illness.

Key pre­sen­ters, includ­ing Peter, Shy­la Mills, and Stephen Wales, com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment con­sul­tant at Car­ers SA, shared valu­able insights into pal­lia­tive care, spark­ing sig­nif­i­cant inter­est among atten­dees. There was also a notable demand for infor­ma­tion on gen­er­al res­i­den­tial aged care and My Aged Care, sug­gest­ing poten­tial top­ics for future events.

For over 2 decades, Peter has been a tire­less advo­cate for improv­ing care for those liv­ing with Motor Neu­ron Dis­ease (MND). This month, his ded­i­ca­tion was rec­og­nised with a Life­time Achieve­ment Medal award­ed by the MND Asso­ci­a­tion Aus­tralia at Par­lia­ment House, Can­ber­ra. This hon­our cel­e­brates his sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the MND com­mu­ni­ty, includ­ing the estab­lish­ment of the SAL­HN MND clin­ic. This mile­stone marks a sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ment in Peter’s career and under­scores his unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to improv­ing the lives of peo­ple with MND.

Peter is not afraid to step out of his com­fort zone to sup­port MND. The MND Board South Aus­tralia, of which Peter is the Deputy Chair, held their annu­al ​“Walk to defeat MND” as their major fundrais­er event. This year, the event includ­ed a dunk in ice cold water, for which Peter hap­pi­ly vol­un­teered. His grand­son had the hon­our of press­ing the dunk button!

The SALA Artist in Res­i­dence project is an ini­tia­tive of Arts in Health, South­ern Ade­laide Local Health Net­work, and South­ern Ade­laide Pal­lia­tive Ser­vices, based at Flinders Med­ical Centre. 

Both Peter and Kathryn were in full sup­port of this amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty, and through the CEIH Pal­lia­tive Care Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work, con­nect­ed Dr Daniel Con­nell, who’s PhD research inves­ti­gat­ed por­trai­ture as a social­ly engaged prac­tice. Sub­se­quent­ly Daniel led the Artist in Res­i­dence program.

Com­mis­sioned by the SAL­HN South­ern Ade­laide Pal­lia­tive Care Ser­vices (SAPS) sup­port­ed by Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Tim To, Head of Unit.

Over three months, artist and arts edu­ca­tor, Dr Daniel Con­nell has spent time with patients at the Lau­rel Hos­pice at Flinders Med­ical Cen­tre, explor­ing the theme ​‘the human­i­ty in liv­ing and dying’.

This spe­cial project was ini­ti­at­ed dur­ing Nation­al Pal­lia­tive Care Week in May 2024, when Daniel Con­nell pre­sent­ed at a Med­ical Grand Round on the ben­e­fits of incor­po­rat­ing arts at the end of life. Since then, Daniel has engaged in mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions with pal­lia­tive care patients, cre­at­ing por­traits that cap­ture their thoughts and reflections.

Through­out August, he has show­cased a large-scale ephemer­al por­trait series in the Arts in Health Gallery at Flinders Med­ical Centre.

Kathryn Houri­g­an, Dr David Hold­en, Head of Unit, North­ern Ade­laide Pal­lia­tive Care Ser­vice, Dr Mary Brooks­bank, Chair Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee Grief Link and Kate Sweten­ham, Direc­tor of Nurs­ing, End of Life Care, DHW, attend­ed the launch of the Advance Care Plan­ning Report for Vul­ner­a­ble Com­mu­ni­ties at Gov­ern­ment House on Mon­day 26^th August 2024.