The Pal­lia­tive Care Clin­ic Box, a free, cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate resource devel­oped by the caring@ home project, is one tool to assist fam­i­lies and car­ers to sup­port Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ple who choose to remain at home or on Coun­try for the final stage of their life.

When a per­son express­es a strong desire to return to Coun­try and the fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty are sup­port­ive, clin­i­cal ser­vices can use the resources to teach fam­i­lies and car­ers how to care for their loved one at home. Clin­i­cians can edu­cate the fam­i­ly about com­mon end-of-life symp­toms and how to help man­age these symp­toms at home includ­ing how to give sub­cu­ta­neous med­i­cines if the need arises.

Using the resources enables clin­i­cal ser­vices to pro­vide per­son-cen­tred, high-qual­i­ty pal­lia­tive care and, as illus­trat­ed by the sto­ry high­light­ed right, can lead to ben­e­fi­cial out­comes for the per­son, their fam­i­ly and the community.

The resources in the Pal­lia­tive Care Clin­ic Box are freely avail­able to clin­i­cal ser­vices and applic­a­ble Aus­tralia-wide. They have been tai­lored from the stan­dard caring@home resources, and include fam­i­ly tip sheets on symp­tom man­age­ment, step-by-step guides about giv­ing sub­cu­ta­neous med­i­cines, short train­ing videos, a med­i­cine book and wall chart. There are also spe­cif­ic resources for health pro­fes­sion­als and clin­i­cal ser­vices to sup­port teach­ing fam­i­lies and carers.

The caring@home team under­took an exten­sive con­sul­ta­tion process over two years with Indige­nous and non-Indige­nous health pro­fes­sion­als from pri­ma­ry health care and spe­cial­ist pal­lia­tive care clin­i­cal ser­vices and oth­er key stake­hold­ers in each state and ter­ri­to­ry, seek­ing advice and feed­back on the devel­op­ment of the resources.

Since launch­ing in August 2022, 500 Pal­lia­tive Care Clin­ic Box­es have been dis­trib­uted to clin­i­cal ser­vices around Aus­tralia with pos­i­tive feed­back received from clin­i­cians and fam­i­lies about the use­ful­ness and prac­ti­cal­i­ty of the resources.

Clin­i­cal ser­vices can order a free Clin­ic Box by vis­it­ing www​.caringath​ome​pro​ject​.com​.au. All resources can be down­loaded from the website.

caring@home for Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Fam­i­lies is a Nation­al Pal­lia­tive Care Project, fund­ed by the Aus­tralia Gov­ern­ment. This project is con­duct­ed by a con­sor­tium involv­ing Aus­tralian Indige­nous Health­In­foNet, Pal­lia­tive Care Aus­tralia, the Con­gress of Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Nurs­es and Mid­wives (CATSI­NaM) and led by Bris­bane South Pal­lia­tive Care Collaborative.

“We gave that med­i­cine; you know the one for sick­ness in the gut. Sis did real well using them easy instruc­tions and tips in the [caring@home] resources.

And I’ll tell you what, after days of not eat­ing, he smelt them roo tails being smoked on the bar­bie and a few hours after that sick med­i­cine kicked in, he hoovered them tails right down.

He says that the roo tail, this is the cul­tur­al sym­bol­ism used for bal­ance and strength… and the roo tail is used to defend off harm and threats. The roo tails give us direc­tion, propul­sion and speed. And I’m telling you what, we all know he can use these as her nears the Dream­ing.

He sat by the fire with this fam­i­ly tonight. At three, his spir­it danced in the flames, his body now at rest… because you guys ensured that his spir­it got to rest in the def­i­n­i­tion of his own peace.

Abo­rig­i­nal fam­i­ly from remote West­ern Queens­land. This sto­ry was shared with the per­mis­sion of the fam­i­ly involved. We thank them for their gen­eros­i­ty in allow­ing us to pub­lish it.