Strengthening palliative and end-of-life care at Capecare
Capecare is making significant progress on a project to strengthen the palliative and end-of-life care we provide to older people and their families across our residential and Community home care services.
In November 2025, Capecare received funding through the End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) Linkages Program for our Busselton and Dunsborough residential care facilities and Community home care services.
The project is helping us review how palliative and end-of-life care is provided across Capecare, build the knowledge and confidence of our teams and identify practical improvements that can be embedded into everyday care.
Palliative care supports people living with a life-limiting illness to live as fully and comfortably as possible. It can begin well before the final days of life and includes managing physical symptoms such as pain as well as addressing emotional, social and spiritual needs and supporting families and carers.
A Capecare Palliative Care Working Party has now been established to help guide this work across the organisation, with palliative care and advance care planning champions also being developed.
Education has been an important part of the project. In May, four days of specialised palliative care education through the Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA) were arranged for staff from our Dunsborough, Busselton and Community services. Trainees included registered nurses, carers and lifestyle team members, with participants reporting that the training was practical, relevant to different roles and encouraged further learning.
We are also strengthening the way we review and learn from end-of-life care. After Death Audits are now being completed following deaths, providing teams with an opportunity to consider what went well, identify any gaps in care or communication, support staff to debrief and identify opportunities for further improvement.
Supporting families is another important focus. Capecare teams have been reviewing and introducing trusted information about advance care planning, palliative care, grief and bereavement. Resources from ELDAC, palliAGED and Palliative Care Australia are now being made available to staff, residents and families, and we are developing a new online palliative care resource through the Capecare website to make this information easier to find.
Practical improvements are also being trialled. At Dunsborough, a dedicated palliative care trolley was established in June to make important comfort-care resources readily available when they are needed. Early feedback has been positive, with the pilot due to be reviewed in September.
The project is also helping strengthen connections beyond Capecare. Our team has met with South West Regional Palliative Care to improve understanding of specialist support, referral processes and communication when residents move between hospital and Capecare.
Together, these initiatives are helping us build a more consistent and informed approach to palliative and end-of-life care – supporting older people to be comfortable, respected and involved in decisions about their care, while ensuring families and the people important to them are informed and supported.
ELDAC is a national specialist palliative care and advance care planning advisory service. The ELDAC project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and managed by a consortium of three Australian universities and four national aged care, palliative care and health organisations.
