Valuing project partnerships

A blog post written by Jennifer Tieman, CEO of the CareSearch project

Palliative care looks to provide comprehensive care that supports the individual and the family. Palliative care is positive care based on evidence, responsive to needs, and valued. As a sector we want to not only deliver care but build awareness of and access to palliative care and increase its evidence and practice base. Working together is a critical part of achieving these ambitions.

CareSearch works with others in the sector – with other projects, clinical services, research teams, community organisations, educational groups, and individuals who generously share their clinical and academic expertise, their time, and their lived experience. We already have a substantial network of partnerships and collaborations to enhance reach and uptake of palliative care concepts and evidence across the health and aged care sectors. Our governance structure includes a national advisory group, expert working groups and community participants. So, why have we chosen to formalise Partner Projects as part of our structure and our strategy in the CareSearch Portal redevelopment?

There is an increasing volume of activity looking at needs, services, and interventions around ageing, caring, dying, and grieving. This has several practical implications. Firstly, it can be difficult for knowledge and service users to navigate the available resources and understand what they are and whether they are the same or different form other options. Secondly, it can be challenging to maintain an ever-increasing network or contacts, resources, and support requirements. Thirdly, there can be variations in the availability, quality and cost of resources highlighting the need for there to be some form of review of activities. Many projects and groups already include quality assessment as part of their business and CareSearch also has defined processes and criteria.

As part of the redevelopment project, we have formally reviewed our quality processes, our governance structure, and our approaches to collaboration and networking. CareSearch already collaborates at varying levels with most of the national programs and initiatives, as well as with other organisations including Flinders University’s Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying. By connecting with others, we strive to increase the development and reach of quality palliative care for all Australians across the life course and across the different contexts of care. It is also one of the ways in which CareSearch contributes to the implementation of the National Palliative Care Strategy.

We will continue to maintain a high level of involvement across these activities. However, we have also established a particular subset of our collaborations that recognises our formal partners. CareSearch Partner Projects are projects or organisations with whom CareSearch and/or palliAGED has a formal agreement to jointly produce or maintain content relevant to palliative care. This type of partnership based on a formal agreement provides CareSearch with some surety about the evidence base and quality of content production processes. In practical terms, the integration of our Partner Projects into the CareSearch website allows for an expanded information and resource base while maintaining content quality and trustworthiness. It also means, that where appropriate, we do not duplicate content but rather incorporate into our portal the content of our partner projects. This enables us to expand the range of resources to meet palliative care needs across the life course and across the varied contexts of care with trustworthy information.

In the new portal, we profile our partner projects and include their resources and logos in the CareSearch sections relating to their specific focus. In this way we can acknowledge the formal partnership, link to more detailed and specific resources, and highlight CareSearch’s involvement in these projects.

Jennifer Tieman, CEO, CareSearch