Just before Easter, Helena Dunbar, Director of Service Development and Improvement at Together for Short Lives, travelled to Canada to undertake the first leg of her Churchill Fellowship. In this next phase of her travels to Australia, Helena shares her first few days with the Victoria Paediatric Palliative Care Programme in Melbourne (VPPCP).
The palliative care service in Victoria (VPPCP) was set up in 2000 by Jen Hynson, who had the vision and tenacity to put forward a business case to appoint a consultant, a nurse and a social worker – the start of a specialist palliative care unit based at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Today, the 13.7 WTE team is led by Dr Bronwyn Sacks and consists of a strong interdisciplinary team of clinicians (consultants and registrars), clinical nurse consultants, social workers, occupational therapists, pharmacist and administrative staff.
The team, based at Royal Children’s Hospital and with satellite staff at Monash Children’s Hospital, provide specialist palliative care advice, education and direct delivery working across the sector with other care providers, community palliative care services, and Very Special Kids (children’s hospice). There are approximately 140 new referrals every year to the service, with about 80 deaths per year, most of these either at home or in the hospital, with a very small number at the hospice.
On my first morning, I met with the team to hear them discuss the children on their caseloads, particularly the priority children, or ‘hotties’, as they are referred to. Following this, I began eight days of an action-packed itinerary put together by lead Clinical Nurse Consultant, Melissa Heywood.
What I love about travelling and learning are the gems of information and updates to practice that are gleamed. For me this was Techni Ice, a portable, disposable, cooling system that allows families (who wish to) to spend extended time with their child after death. In RCH, Techni Ice has transformed post bereavement time for families – there is no need to use a cool room, a Cuddle Cot or a cooling mattress. Instead, a discrete and disposable sheet made of high-density plastic and refrigerant polymer (which is non-toxic – essentially dry ice packs) that can fit any size of child, placed next to the baby or child offers the family the portability of an effective cooling system.
On Thursday, I travelled to La Trobe University for their first half day research symposium – an opportunity to bring together a multidisciplinary group of colleagues interested in forming a community of practice for children’s research. The day was facilitated by Melissa Heywood (VPPCP) and Ashleigh Butler, (Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe). I had the opportunity to talk about palliative care in the UK and the role of Together for Short Lives, along with my own research interests, and – more importantly – listen to five quick-fire presentations from current studies taking place in Melbourne.
La Trobe has one of the largest nursing faculties in Victoria and I had the opportunity to visit their simulation labs and meet with the programme leads to understand the undergraduate registered nurse curriculum. In Victoria, both children’s nursing and palliative care programmes are only offered as graduate options.
Over the next two days, I had the pleasure of visiting Very Special Kids (VSK), a new state of the art building opened in 2023 on the previous hospice site. The original hospice opened in 1996 as a result of the vision of Sister Margaret Noone, following her Churchill Fellowship travel to the UK, and determination to come back to Australia and build its first children’s hospice (sounds familiar to the story of Canuck Place!).
VSK is an eight bed unit, primarily offering family support and respite to families, with some end of life care. Families have the option of up to 21 nights respite every financial year. The hospice also has two beautiful townhouses on site, available for use by families who wish to be close to their child.
In comparison to the 54 children’s hospice services in the UK, there are three children’s hospices across Australia: Very Special Kids in Melbourne, Bear Cottage in Sydney and Hummingbird House in Queensland. A fourth hospice in Perth is currently being planned. The total landmass and scale of Australia can be overwhelming! The state of Victoria alone is 227 kms2 . That’s very similar to the landmass of the UK (245 kms2), but with a population of 6.9 million (10 times less than UK), it has one children’s hospice and one specialist children’s palliative care service (VPPCP).
Whilst at the hospice I had the pleasure of meeting another 2020 Churchill Fellow, Belinda Munn, who was awarded the Dr Dorothea Sandars and Irene Lee 2020 Churchill Fellowship to investigate and implement best practice physiotherapy in Australian paediatric palliative care. In 2022, Belinda travelled to the UK visiting 12 children’s hospices to explore physiotherapy and hydrotherapy services in the UK.
Chatting with Belinda, we were both reminded of the privilege and honour to travel, to learn and to share with colleagues all over the world. The Churchill Fellowship is open to all UK citizens who want to travel to learn and bring that learning back to the UK. You can learn more about the programme of Fellowships and opportunities available here.
If you missed Helena’s earlier blogs and would like to follow her three week visit to Canada and her arrival in Australia, you can read her blogs here:
