Developing a 3-year Palliative Care Action Plan for Brisbane South PHN
Status: Completed December 2022
Client: Brisbane South Primary Health Network
Background
The purpose of this project was to develop a 3-year action plan focused on the strategic commissioning of palliative care services in the Brisbane South region.
Beacon Strategies was engaged to undertake the development of Brisbane South PHN’s Palliative Care 3-Year Action Plan. Within the project, Beacon Strategies undertook a review of the findings and outcomes of Brisbane South PHN’s previous palliative care projects that would inform future commissioning decisions.
In three years prior, Brisbane South PHNs Palliative care projects and initiatives had been delivered within short-to-medium timeframes. Brisbane South PHN identified the need for an action plan that outlined commissioning investments for the Palliative care portfolio for the following three years to enable the delivery of impact long-term initiatives.
Approach
Our approach to the development of Brisbane South PHNs Palliative Care 3-Year Action Plan was designed to achieve the objectives below:
Objective 1
Undertake a targeted desktop review of source documents to contextualise palliative care project delivery in Brisbane South PHN.
Objective 2
Engage with key stakeholders to understand the strengths, weaknesses and identification of future opportunities for palliative care projects and initiatives in Brisbane South.
Objective 3
Develop a strategic but practical action plan focused on Brisbane South PHN's role in the system and priority commissioning investments for the palliative care portfolio for the next three years.
Objective 4
Support Brisbane South PHN staff with the practical implementation of the Action Plan and embedding it into existing work planning and processes.
Outcomes
We developed an action plan outlining 25 actions for Brisbane South PHN to lead over a three-year period across 5 priorities:
Increasing death literacy and understanding of dying well in priority communities across Brisbane South
Improving the accessibility and equity of palliative care services and supports
Strengthening the delivery of palliative care to be holistic, effective, high-quality and responsive to people’s needs
Supporting a capable palliative care workforce, particularly primary health and aged care services
Building an integrated, informed palliative care system
In addition, we provided a comprehensive final report comprising the research, data analysis and stakeholder consultation findings that underpinned the action plan, as well as implementation guidance to support the PHN team to successfully execute the plan over the coming years.
You can view the action plan on the right or on their website: https://bsphn.org.au/community-health/commissioning/palliative-care.
Over several years, we have worked with dozens of PHNs across Australia to guide and support their work at various stages in the commissioning cycle to improve health outcomes, tackle health disparities, address service gaps and support the primary care workforce across areas such as mental health and suicide prevention, aged care, palliative care, alcohol and other drugs, chronic disease and population health. Find out more about our PHN services here.
