Palliative Care

Research Focus

The focus of Professor Samar Aoun and her group is on a public health approach to palliative care, one that views the community as an equal partner in the long and complex task of providing quality health care at the end of life. In the last 5 years, the group has cemented its reputation as a world leader in this field and in developing the public health model for bereavement support. Research findings have provided the first empirical evidence of the viability of the compassionate communities approach to end of life care which created a shift in the culture of care and support, to more sustainable and affordable care with high levels of community control and ownership. Researchers from around the world are testing the public health model for bereavement support in their own communities in order to get the right support for the right people at the right time. The model has already informed policy and practice at national and international levels.

The Palliative Care Research Group’s current projects are focused on family carer support, bereavement support and consumer perspectives of palliative care including:

• Developing best practice in end-of-life care and bereavement support through a national survey of bereaved family carers of people with MND, funded by MND Research Australia.
• An NHMRC funded partnership project on patient-centred care for a progressive neurological disease – evidence driving policy.
• An ARC Discovery funded study into assessing supportive care needs of Indigenous cancer survivors’ caregivers
• An NHMRC funded multicentre randomised controlled trial of a program to support informal caregivers of older people discharged home from the hospital.
• The Compassionate Communities Connectors model for end-of-life care: a community and health service partnership in Western Australia, funded by the WA Health Translation Network.
• The statewide review of consumers perspectives of palliative care service models in Western Australia, funded by WA Health.