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Silverchain’s WA Community Specialist Palliative Care Service, previously the Hospice Care Service, provides in-home specialist palliative care services for eligible clients within the Perth metropolitan area as defined by the Department of Health Western Australia.

Community Specialist Palliative Care Service

  • Interdisciplinary specialist palliative care team support
  • Access to respite, personal care, equipment and consumables
  • Bereavement support
  • Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
  • Excludes clients in Residential Aged Care facilities (RACF)

Palliative Nurse Consultancy

  • Available to services and organisations who do not have timely access to Specialist Palliative Care Services. 
  • RACF can access this service.
  • Provided by Registered Nurses only.
  • Medical governance maintained by GP.
  • Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Referral criteria

Eligible:

  • Client has a progressive, life-limiting condition (malignant or non-malignant); and
  • Specialist palliative care advice, support, assessment and/or care at home is required for complex symptom management (physical, psychosocial and/or spiritual) beyond the capacity of the primary care team to manage optimally or the client is dying, and the primary care team requires additional support/advice to manage the client’s end-of-life care; and
  • The client or their substitute decision-maker have been consulted and given consent for referral to the service and to receiving palliative care at home; and
  • The client has a home environment in which care can be delivered safely; and
  • It is likely the client will die in the next year, months, weeks or days

Ineligible

If the client does not meet the eligibility criteria above, other avenues of support may be:

  • Clients > 65 years old may access services via My Aged Care.
  • Clients < 65 years old may access services via NDIS.
  • Other palliative care services from clinics, inpatient services and facilities.  For information, visit Palliative Care WA or WA Department of Health websites.

You may call us 24/7 to help you navigate the palliative care needs of your clients.

Geographical availability

Metropolitan WA:

  • All metropolitan areas

Cost

No cost to client.


How to refer

Referrals to the Community Specialist Palliative Care Service can be received from either a Medical Practitioner or a Specialist Nurse Practitioner.

Referrals to Palliative Nurse Consultancy can be received from Medical Practitioners, Specialist Nurse Practitioners and other health professionals in consultation with the client's General Practitioner who is required to maintain medical governance.

    1. Check referral criteria.
    2. To refer, you can either:
      • Fill in the Community Specialist Palliative Care referral form; or
      • Write a referral letter outlining the client’s history and the reasons for referral to a specialist palliative care service.
      • Provide additional information where available such as discharge summaries, specialist letters, scans, pathology, advanced care plans, medication lists.
    3. Send the referral documents either as:
    4. To provide updates on client care or to provide medication orders, fill in the Update Form.
    5. For enquiries, phone 1300 512 322 to speak to a Palliative Care Liaison Nurse, available Monday to Friday from 8.00am to 4.30pm, or the Clinical Nurse Manager outside these hours.
    6. If you have an URGENT referral, please call 1300 512 322.