Helping to empower regional multidisciplinary health teams to provide holistic palliative care

A two-year project funded by an Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing grant to our university aimed to: investigate the experience and perceptions of health professionals involved in providing palliative care in regional areas; identify continuing educational needs; and develop resources to enhance the skills of multidisciplinary palliative care teams, focusing on areas of pastoral care, counselling and support, which health professionals were often less confident to provide. This paper reports on the development of one of the resources and its evaluation.