Representatives from Mercy Palliative Care and the Gabrielle Jennings Centre at Werribee Mercy Hospital recently joined clinicians, researchers, and service providers from across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region for the 2025 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference (OPCC), held in Brisbane from 10 to 13 September.
The biennial conference, hosted by Palliative Care Australia, brings together leaders in palliative and end-of-life care to share research, innovations and lived experiences that improve the quality of life for patients, families and communities. This year’s theme, “Meeting Challenges, Building Solutions”, highlighted how collaboration and creativity are shaping the future of palliative care across a variety of settings.
Over the course of the event, the Mercy Health teams presented six research posters and two oral presentations, all of which were warmly received, with several services expressing interest in future collaboration.
Presentations included:
- Transforming Community Palliative Care: The Path from Novice to Proficient Health Professionals – Aurora Ciminelli
- Snippets of Grief – Gemma Bishop and Chris Oosthuizen
The six posters showcased a wide range of projects reflecting Mercy Health’s integrated approach to care:
- Partnering with the Bereaved Family: Funeral Service Direct Pick-up Program — an initiative from the Gabrielle Jennings Centre that enables families to choose a culturally sensitive and compassionate ward-based collection process, reducing distress and supporting diverse funeral traditions.
- Strengthening Palliative Care Through Volunteer Training and Cross-Sector Collaboration — detailing the development of a structured volunteer training model to sustain and expand community palliative care support.
- Multidisciplinary Approach to Reviewing Falls in Community Palliative Care (Falls Huddle) — outlining a weekly review process that has improved screening, education and falls outcomes for community clients.
- Psychosocial Spiritual Aged Care Collaboration — examining the need for stronger spiritual and emotional care pathways for aged care residents, including staff training and bereavement support.
- UNITE Team Initiative — showcasing a multidisciplinary urgent response model that ensures timely, person-centred care for patients in unstable phases, allowing more people to remain at home in their preferred place of care.
- Residential In-Reach Collaboration — highlighting improved coordination between residential aged care homes and specialist palliative care teams to help residents remain in familiar surroundings near the end of life.
The conference provided a valuable opportunity to share knowledge, build connections and celebrate the innovative, compassionate work being done across Mercy Health’s palliative care services.
