17 March 2025
Many of you have witnessed the compassionate care our clinical and family support teams give to local families. But fewer people know about our Poi (Palliative Outcome Initiative) team, which supports health professionals in the community to care for the dying.
Poi was set up in 2018 to ensure that as many people in our community as possible could receive high quality palliative care. “Sometimes people are nearing the end of life but don’t necessarily need the specialist care that Hospice provides,” Poi Team Leader, Heidi Conway, explains.
“Our Poi team guides and supports the health professionals who care for them. It’s a very efficient way of ensuring quality palliative care for all. We are building the confidence and competence of health professionals outside hospice, in the palliative care space.”
In 2022 the team introduced Poi Rounds, to specifically support nurses working in aged residential care (ARC). "We started off supporting nine aged residential care facilities. Now we support more than 30, from a total pool of 47. This means we are reaching the majority of people in an ARC bed in our community,” Dr Conway says. Evelyn Page Retirement Village Clinical Manager Elisel Valoria says having this support has boosted her team’s confidence in the palliative care space. “The Poi team is literally only one email or phone call away and the strength of their support has meant we have learned so much and built trust with families as they’ve witnessed how our team handles palliative care,” she says.
“We are reaching the majority of people in an aged residential care bed in our community.”
