Palliative care is an approach to care of people living with life-limiting illness. This includes the person who is ill, family, friends and others close to them.
It is the essence of good care. It is about seeing the patient as a person, tailoring care to them, enabling them to express their hopes, needs and wishes and working with them to make decisions.
Compassion, communication and teamwork are central to the approach. Self-awareness and self-care are important for professional providers of care.
End of life care is everyone’s business; every end of life contact is unique.
Access to palliative and end of life care is a basic human right. Yet significant inequalities exist.
These relate primarily to recognition of someone as ill enough to die, access to services and quality of care.
A narrow view of end of life can exclude people at risk of sudden or premature death.
The academy
The academy encourages an inclusive approach, challenging traditional stereotypes and considering the needs of people who may find themselves missing out on good palliative and end-of-life care.
Death doesn’t discriminate. Neither should we.
The academy is a community of people committed to delivering excellent palliative and end-of-life care.
Its role is to build confidence and competence across the workforce, using the experience and expertise of staff across a wide range of organisations in the South Tees localiity as well as people with lived experience.
Core activities
Strengthen trust-wide learning around palliative and end of life care
Strengthen links across organisations through shared learning events
Build an inclusive culture, improving access to palliative and end of life care for all
Support the network of palliative care champions across the trust
Share and co-create materials for use by staff or people using our services
Learn from examples of good practice, complaints or incidents
Run educational events and conferences internally and externally