Palliative Care in Australia
Information about the Inquiry
On 23 November 2011 the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Community Affairs Committees for inquiry and report.
The provision of palliative care in Australia, including:
(a) the factors influencing access to and choice of appropriate palliative care that meets the needs of the population, including:
(i) people living in rural and regional areas,
(ii) Indigenous people,
(iii) people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds,
(iv) people with disabilities, and
(v) children and adolescents;
(b) the funding arrangements for palliative care provision, including the manner in which sub-acute funding is provided and spent;
(c) the efficient use of palliative, health and aged care resources;
(d) the effectiveness of a range of palliative care arrangements, including hospital care, residential or community care and aged care facilities;
(e) the composition of the palliative care workforce, including:
(i) its ability to meet the needs of the ageing population, and
(ii) the adequacy of workforce education and training arrangements;
(f) the adequacy of standards that apply to the provision of palliative care and the application of the Standards for Providing Quality Palliative Care for all Australians;
(g) advance care planning, including:
(i) avenues for individuals and carers to communicate with health care professionals about end-of-life care,
(ii) national consistency in law and policy supporting advance care plans, and
(iii) scope for including advance care plans in personal electronic health records; and
(h) the availability and funding of research, information and data about palliative care needs in Australia.
Submissions should be received by 23 March 2012. The reporting date is 12 September 2012. On 11 September 2012,the Senate granted an extension of time for reporting until 10 October 2012.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3515 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5829 or by email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia