The rural Palliative Care Program aims to increase access to quality palliative care services by enhancing common understandings of models of rural palliative care services, participating Divisions of General Practice and key stakeholders, including specialist palliative care services; strengthening links between palliative care and mainstream service delivery; and taking into account the broader consumer and community interests.

The program aims to achieve this by:

• Establishing an ongoing model of governance for Palliative Care services within the Division by incorporating the governance for Palliative Care into the partnerships groups currently operating within the Division.

• Developing models for the provision of palliative care services which are sustainable within the current health care environment by ensuring all activities undertaken within the project are sustainable beyond the term of the project.

• Establishing closer links between Specialist Palliative care services and local Palliative Care providers by developing and implementing formal communication strategies and care pathways to allow continuity of care between local and specialist palliative care providers.

• Providing data to demonstrate the effectiveness of palliative care models implemented as part of the project by ensuring data collection activity is undertaken throughout the project and is provided as appropriate in a timely and efficient manner.

• Establishing sustainable models which support the role of the link nurse in Rural Communities by developing models for the link nurse positions which are well resourced and integrated into the local and regional palliative care services.

• Providing access to effective information exchange which will promote continuity of care across a number of service providers by implement patient held records.

• Increasing the knowledge and skills of local palliative care service providers by providing access to a multi-disciplinary education program.

• Implementing forums for the development and delivery of local multidisciplinary palliative care services by facilitating the development of local multi-disciplinary palliative care groups.