Many of you may be familiar with the Residential Aged Care (RAC) Hub which was previously found in the CareSearch website. The RAC Hub was developed by CareSearch in collaboration with Aged Care stakeholders and launched in 2011. The work reflected the findings of the APRAC Guidelines. As it was one of the first web resources focusing on palliative care in aged care facilities, the RAC Hub led the way in connecting the aged care workforce with quality evidence.
In 2017, the palliAGED website was launched. palliAGED was funded by the Department of Health to provide a new form of palliative care guidance for aged care – both residential aged care and home care. It was designed to update and replace the APRAC and COMPAC Guidelines.
As part of our current work program we have completed a review of the role of the RAC Hub in CareSearch. One of the aims of this review was to consolidate content to create a single source for evidence based palliative care guidance for aged care. We worked closely with the palliAGED Advisory Group and the CareSearch Advisory Group to finalise a plan for consolidation.
This plan involved:
- Updating the Australian Context pages and add new pages to cover the Facility issues found in the RAC Hub
- Developing a set of palliAGED Practice Tips that cover the Care Issues found in the RAC Hub
- Transferring RAC Hub content on workforce and education to the palliAGED Education and Training section
- Moving relevant pages from the For Residents and Families section to the palliAGED For the Community section
- Incorparating content from the Literature and Resources section into the palliAGED Finding Evidence Section.
This work and implementation of the plan was completed at the end of 2019. The full RAC Hub Project Plan is found on the CareSearch website.
New Content
As well as content that has moved from RAC Hub, we are also creating new evidence summaries. Three topics have been endorsed for development: Intimacy & sexuality, mental illness, and psychosocial care. Sexuality and intimacy and Mental Illness have been completed, Psychosocial Care is currently being externally reviewed.
Updating Content
Ensuring evidence currency is like painting Sydney Harbour Bridge - it requires ongoing commitment. We scan monthly for new systematic reviews that could affect the content found in the Evidence Summaries. New review evidence is appraised following our Evidence Review Process (169kb pdf). We also review Australian aged care sources for new tools, practice resources or care items that could be included within the Practice Centre.
Page updated 16 August 2022