Recruiting now! Supporting Advance Care Planning in
Residential Aged Care
Background
Advance Care Planning (ACP) involves people planning for
a time when they are unable to communicate the type of
health or personal care they would want. If people’s choices
and values are not known, there can be increased anxiety
for both providers and families.1
Inner North West Melbourne Medicare Local will be
working with Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) to
promote the importance of, and develop
sustainable systems for Advance Care Planning - planning
for the end of someone’s life.
What is the role of Residential Aged Care Facilities?
Embedding ACP into usual practice, while people are well
enough to consider and discuss their future wishes, is a key
approach within this initiative.
This approach aims to support ACP implementation to
prepare residents for their end-of-life care. This project will
have a particular focus on people who are residents of
RACF’s.
We are seeking Residential Aged
Care Facilities in the INWM region
to take part in a project, focused
on embedding advance care
planning into their usual care
practice.
We are looking for RACFs that are:
 committed to improving patient
care through the ACP process
 able to commit to a 15 month
project
 able to attend working group
meetings
NB: Minimum of 2 key staff and a facility
manager need to be committed across
the life of the project.
See over page for details on how
to get involved!
The project will involve participating RACFs developing,
testing and evaluating processes, tools and resources to:
1. Participate in a working group that will guide system development for implementing ACPs in
RACFs;
2. Develop systems to implement ACPs in your facility;
3. Enable staff to feel more confident and comfortable with the ‘how and ‘why’ of ACP
implementation;
4. Have the conversation about ACPs with your residents;
5. Store and review patient ACPs; and,
6. Share information about ACPs with others involved in a patient’s care and activate ACPs as
required.
See over page for details on how to get involved!
1
Department of Health Victoria (2014), Advance care planning: A strategy for Victorian Health Services 2014-2018
Participating facilities will:

Nominate key representatives (managers, care coordinators and senior nurses) for the life of the project;

Participate in a working group that will review the different systems in place at a range of facilities and provide
advice on best practice;

Reflect and report on activity, progress and outcomes at workshops.

Contribute to the broader INWMML Inner North West Melbourne Health Collaborative activities, where and as
able – including Inner North West Melbourne Medicare Local, Melbourne Health, cohealth and Merri
Community Health Service - is one of three Consortia funded by the Department of Health and Human
2
Services to support system-wide approaches to advance care planning in our region.
What does the project involve?
Development Phase: To June 30 2015. The project involves data collection at your RACFs, and attendance by
key personnel from the RACFs at x 2 working group meetings, and training attendance by at least two staff and a
manager (approx. 2hrs per each meeting).
Implementation Phase: July 2015 – June 2016, you will embed the model into your facility, with regular support
from the group and INWMML.
What support will be available to participating Facilities?
Funding of $1,000 (GST exclusive) per facility is available to support staff to participate in the project.
INWMML will provide project officer support for participating facilities to aid access to available tools, resources,
training and information to support your practice staff in the advance care planning process.
The project will enable participating facilities to participate in peer support opportunities and will be actively
supported to implement quality improvement systems within the facility.
How to participate
Fill in the expression of interest form below and submit this by 15 May 2015. Interested facilities will be contacted
for further discussion.
If you have any questions about the ACP project please contact Margo Roest, Program Officer, Older Adults and
Primary Health Care Nursing on (03) 9347 1188 or email margo.roest@inwmml.org.au
Expression of Interest
 I am interested in participating in the Supporting ACP in RACFs project.
Title
Name
Position
Organisation
Address
Suburb
Telephone
Postcode
Email
Send completed form by 15 May 2015 to margo.roest@inwmml.org.au or fax 9347 7433.
2
Key partners include North and West Metro Palliative Care Consortium, Royal District Nursing Service and the Inner North
West Primary Care Partnership