Guidelines for a Palliative Approach in Residential Aged Care

NHMRC APPROVAL
These guidelines were approved by the National Health and Medical Research
Council at its 159th Session on 8 December 2005, under section 14A of the
National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992. Approval for the guidelines
by the NHMRC is granted for a period not exceeding five years, at which date the
approval expires. The NHMRC expects that all guidelines will be reviewed no less
than once every five years. Readers should check with the Department of Health
and Ageing for any reviews or updates of these guidelines.
DISCLAIMER
This document is a general guide to appropriate practice, to be followed subject to
the clinician’s judgement and the patient’s preference in each individual case.
The guidelines are designed to provide information to assist decision-making and
are based on the best evidence available at the time of compilation.
These guidelines can be downloaded from the National Health and Medical
Research Council website: www.nhmrc.gov.au or the Department of Health and
Ageing website: www.health.gov.au/palliativecare
2004 First edition
2006 Enhanced version
This version of the guidelines was approved by the NHMRC on 8 December 2005.
The main changes to the document since the first edition in 2004 are the inclusion
of the development process (now chapter 1); a significant revision of chapter 6
(physical symptom assessment and management) to ensure the information is
stronger than previously, particularly for the complementary and alternative
therapies; a revision of the guideline recommendations to reflect NHMRC’s
requirement for process and outcome to be included; and a revision of the main
body of the literature review document to ensure that the guidelines and the
literature review are more compatible.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2006
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act
1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission
from the Commonwealth. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and
rights should be addressed to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration,
Attorney General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, Canberra
ACT 2600 or posted at http://www.ag.gov.au/cca
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FUNDING
The Guidelines for a palliative approach in residential aged care have been
developed by the Australian Palliative Residential Aged Care (APRAC) Project
funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
ISBN: 0 642 82939 X
Publications Approval Number: 3845
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Guidelines for a Palliative Approach in Residential Aged Care