Soundings in Palliative Care ECHO

Why are we doing this?

End of Life Care Together jointly published a report, Supporting End of Life Care in Highland: Accounting for Value, with NHS Highland which highlighted critical factors in all aspects of palliative care. In summary, there is a need to drive patient centred design and address the way we deliver services in order to enhance learning, visibility and equitable provision.

One of the aims is to "trial a rolling series of projects to impact the number of emergency hospital admissions, whilst better fulfilling people’s end of life preferences, reducing possible inequities of outcomes and using resources more efficiently".

ECHO (Extension of Community Health Outcomes) is perfectly positioned to contribute to these longer term goals through exchanging timely, real world knowledge, supported by case based learning to enable practitioners to quickly start using new insights to apply to complex scenarios.   

 Who is it for?

The ECHO network will be of interest to any health or social care professional, working in Highland or Argyll and Bute and keen for a deeper understanding of palliative and end of life care. 'Soundings' should serve as a great introduction to the ECHO model and will aim to host expert local, national and international presenters to lead discussions on a variety of topics that have been identified by a  group of potential participants. The sessions will also provide the important opportunity for  attendees to present complex case stories for discussion. 

What will be covered?

A variety of topics will be covered over the course of this rolling programme, some of the initial planned topics include:

• Quality of life in the palliative care of children, adolescents and young people
• Gastrointestinal symptoms
• Dementia and delirium
• Breathlessness management
• Recognising when someone is at end of life
• Opioid toxicity and agitation