Caroline Murtagh

Geelong Palliative Care Group

Geelong Palliative Care Group provides palliative care to patients and their families within the greater Geelong Region. Palliative care concentrates on a person's quality of life by optimizing symptom control and meeting a person's psychological, social, emotional and spiritual needs. We aim to provide a palliative care service that supports patients with a terminal illness. Our service looks after patients with a limited life- expectancy; providing end of life care, hospice care, complex pain and general symptom management. Our model of palliative care concentrates on relieving suffering and improving quality of life for people at various stages in their illness. We believe palliative care should be accessed early on in the course of an illness, together with other therapies intended to prolong life such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. We are committed to providing a quality palliative care service to patients at home, in hospital and in residential aged care facilities. We endeavour to keep patients at their chosen venue of care using an individualised service model tailored to meet patients needs . We specialize in caring for patients with both malignant and non-malignant diagnoses, including chronic pain and chronic disease management. Geelong Palliative Care Group believes in a multidisciplinary team approach to patient care. Our palliative care service is available to provide advice and support to patients, advocating on their behalf and liaising directly with other health professionals involved in their care. Our aim is to ensure clients are able to access services that are appropriate for them. We support a patient-centred model of care that is respectful of patient's individual choices and wishes. Our palliative care service focuses on the prompt management of distressing symptoms, aimed at minimizing suffering, maximizing quality of life and maintaining patient dignity throughout their illness journey.