Multidisciplinary services offered by SPaRTa
Specialist Palliative Rural Telehealth Service (SPaRTa) provides patient telehealth consultations and clinical advice to local clinicians managing patients with a terminal illness in rural and regional Queensland.
The multidisciplinary team provides advice and support that includes:
Medical
- Suggestions for pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of symptoms such as pain, nausea and dyspnoea
- Advice on probable prognosis and expected course of illness
- Discussion related to ceiling of care and advance care planning
- Suggestions for further investigations to either better understand symptoms or prognosis
Nursing
- Advice on end-of-life care including medication administration, secretion management and oral hygiene
- Development of symptomatic management plans including bowel management plans and breathlessness plan
- Functional assessment with advice on allied health need and pressure area care
- Support for local nurses caring for palliative patients in rural areas
Social work
- Help with Advance Care Planning and education for end-of-life with patients and families
- Discussions and help with utilising support services
- Counselling for emotional and psychological distress
- Psychosocial assessments
Grief and bereavement care coordination
- Advice and support regarding available grief and bereavement services
- Grief and loss therapeutic intervention including counselling
- Support and education for clinicians supporting community members who are experiencing grief and bereavement
- Build community resilience and support public health approaches to bereavement care
Occupational therapy
- Functional assessment and recommendations such as adaptive strategies and equipment prescription to optimise safety and participation in quality-of-life activities
- Energy conservation and dyspnoea management
- Oedema management
- Pain management
- Pressure injury prevention management
Pharmacy
- Medication reviews and optimisation
- Support with arranging access to restricted medications (e.g. non-PBS and SAS medications)
- Liaison with community and rural hospital pharmacists