The Andrews Labor Government is ensuring more terminally ill Victorians can receive essential end-of-life care they need, delivering critical facility upgrades across the state and supporting care providers to expand their services.
Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas yesterday officially opened the new Palliative Care South community hub in Narre Warren – a state of the art facility set to deliver high-quality care to hundreds of people across Melbourne’s south east who are faced with a life-limiting illness.
The hub has been designed to reduce the impact that life-limiting illness can have on patients and their families, with a range of activities on offer to assist them in managing the social, psychosocial, and physical impacts of end-of-life care.
The new facility features counselling rooms, therapeutic wellbeing gardens, bereavement support groups, art, music and massage therapy and other activities.
Palliative Care South East provides home-based care to more than 450 patients at any given time and offers a range of in-person and virtual appointments. It also provides support for families and carers, coordinates specialist training programs for both staff and volunteers, and runs bereavement services for family and friends.
The new hub will serve as a central coordination point for staff across the region, supporting visits to more patients in their homes, as well as delivering care at residential aged care and primary care – meaning more Victorians can receive the care they need closer to home.
With an ageing population, the new hub will support the needs of the community now and well into the future.
Palliative Care South East is one of the many providers benefitting from the Government’s $32 million package to strengthen community palliative care across the state. The package is supporting palliative care providers as demand for care increases and helping them to extend their services to support Victorians receiving care at home.
As part of the package, the Labor Government is investing $17 million to ensure that regional Victorians get high quality and compassionate end-of-life care across a range of community settings – in their homes, residential facilities and through primary care.
An extra $2.7 million has been invested to support the statewide Palliative Care Advice Service, which offers free and confidential advice about life-limiting illness, palliative care or end-of-life care.
As stated by Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas
“This new hub is just one example of how we’re delivering Victorians the end-of-life care they need and deserve, no matter where they live.”
As stated by Member for Narre Warren North Belinda Wilson
“Palliative Care South East now has the world-class facility they need to support more people across Melbourne’s south-east to get the end-of-life care they need close to home.”
