Palliative care includes the general and sub specialist approach to complex symptom control for patients with life limiting illness across a spectrum of symptoms, as well as the psychological, social and biological symptom spectrum.
Pharmacological treatments continue to expand and complexity continues to increase, with potential interventions going up in cost and access difficulty.
Different settings associate with different strategies. This presentation aims to provide a tailored and focused approach to some of the most common symptoms encountered in the palliative care setting with a focus on practicality and a step-wise approach, with references to escalation when and where appropriate.
A practical discussion of the challenges in community palliative care and the presentation will aim, through clinical vignettes, to explore how community health services can complement one another to provide ongoing holistic care for patients with life-limiting illness.
Appropriate management of advanced dementia requires recognition that dementia is a terminal illness.
Using case examples, this presentation will discuss the symptoms of terminal dementia and approaches to palliative management in specific clinical scenarios. Extreme behaviours in advanced dementia are increasingly prevalent and often challenging to manage in both the community and hospital environments.
Through specific case examples, this presentation will explore non-pharmacological and pharmacological strategies used to manage extreme behaviours, furthermore, how to identify when extreme behaviours represent terminal agitation.
The challenge for our patients is often access to their general practitioner and support in the community.
This discussion aims to explain the role of nurses in the community care of patients and the importance of the GP in the continued support of palliative care patients to ensure care meets the needs of this patient population.
Whilst viewed as the most common Movement Disorder, Parkinson’s Disease is a challenging condition that has both motor and non-motor features. It has an increasingly recognised prodromal phase and its predominant symptoms are constantly changing throughout its course.
This lecture will focus on the treatment of the most common issues and highlight some of the latest areas of research including disease modifying trials
A review of recent developments in asthma management as primary care level, with also reference to asthma sub-types and potential use of biologic agents.
Navigating women and couples through preconception, ante and postnatal care isn’t always easy. With ever changing guidelines, rebates, MBS item numbers and services available it can be a difficult task that is not every GP’s cup of tea.
Private or public midwife, GP or GP shared care, public or private obstetrician? Which hospital? Home birth? Many questions to be answered.
The presentation will include preconception counselling, genetic testing and various aspects of antenatal care. This will bring in recommended investigations, models of care and whom to talk to when the consult “hits uncertainty”. To conclude, there will be guidance through some of the postnatal period and its challenges.