Education Videos & Podcasts List
Compassionate Communities and Advanced Care Planning: Social Support During Holiday Periods and Beyond
This webinar explores how Advance Care Planning and Compassionate communities can support older patients through meaningful, community-based and clinical care.
Kelly, Nurse Practitioner from ANDCare, discusses Advance Care Planning and the new approach ANDCare is taking to enable more people the opportunity to complete their Advance Care Directive.
Learn how to be part of this model that supports more patients in the community with proactive, values-based planning.
Viewers will also hear about Proveda’s Compassionate Connector Program, which links trained volunteers with people over 65 living with life-changing diagnoses, and the Belong Club, a social initiative offering inclusive activities to boost wellbeing and reduce isolation. A walk through of the new online GP referral form, makes it easier than ever to connect patients with community support.
Explore how different models of care, clinical and community, can work in parallel to support people across various stages of ageing, life changing diagnosis and planning ahead.
Learning outcomes:
- Learn about support for patients in our community to complete their advance care directives
- Benefits of Compassionate Communities approach and social prescribing to support health and well-being
- Learn of practical and local supports to reduce isolation and loneliness including referral process
Speakers:
Kelly Arthurs Nurse Practitioner | ANDCare
Kelly is passionate about empowering people to take control of their future care. She has worked closely with Advance Care Planning Australia and the national Advance Project, helping to ensure people’s choices are known, respected, and central to care decisions. She holds a Master of Nurse Practitioner and over 30 years’ experience as a Registered Nurse, and brings expertise in palliative care with a compassionate approach that has guided over a thousand people through their final stages of life.
Anna Petinsky | Compassionate Connector Program Coordinator at Proveda.
Anna holds two Master’s degrees and a three year diploma in psychotherapy, Anna is forever curious about evolving perspectives, approaches and solutions to human struggles. She is passionate about collaborative learning and building lasting relationships to improve community supports at end of life in the decades to come.
Alison Hush | Community Program Coordinator at Proveda
Alison leads the award-winning Belong Club. Alison is deeply passionate about reimagining the healthcare system to look beyond clinical treatment, advocating for the vital role that belonging, social connection, and community engagement play in a person’s overall health and wellbeing. Through her work with the Belong Club, she champions the principles of social prescribing, demonstrating how inclusive, community-led programs can support healthier, more connected lives.
Resources:
Dying at Home
Most Australians prefer to die at home, yet few achieve it. GPs are central to changing this.
This session introduces Full Circle End of Life Matters – a comprehensive end of life team, with physician and nurse led supported model of care designed to partner with general practice. Learn how a fully coordinated, holistic approach can reduce the burden on GPs, improve communication across medical teams, and provide families with seamless end-of-life and grief and bereavement support.
With structured feedback to GPs and clear referral pathways, Full Circle strengthens the community’s ability to support dying at home while easing pressure on overstretched hospital and aged care systems.
TARGET AUDIENCE:
GPs, Practice Staff, Practice Nurses, Allied Health Professonals and Aged Care Staff working in the Northern Sydney Primary Health Network Region
Learning outcomes:
- Strengthening skills in advance care planning and end of life planning and discussion
- Increase confidence in supporting families through dying and bereavement referral
- Understand referral pathways and partnerships that ease burden on general practice
- Access community-based care models that reduce hospital demand and enable patient preference for home death
Speakers:
Dr Clayton Spencer – Medical Director SpencerHealth, MBBS BSc (medicine), Masters Health Admin, Diploma Clinical Psychiatry (Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons Ireland)
Dr Clay Spencer is an experienced senior medical Doctor and has worked in many complex leadership roles over the past twenty years. He has held roles at many levels of public and private organisations including a national role with a large multinational emergency medical retrieval company. He has a background in Psychiatry and General Practice with a particular interest in supporting dying patients.
Anne Kubiak – Full Circle – End of Life Matters
Anne is the founder of Full Circle – End of Life Matters, a pioneering Australian initiative reshaping end-of-life care. With a background as a nurse, death consultant, and health policy innovator, she brings clinical expertise and visionary leadership to compassionate, patient-centred care. Full Circle’s scalable model supports individuals and families through life’s final transitions—physically, emotionally, spiritually, and practically—while integrating seamlessly with existing clinical settings to enhance GP-led care.
Resources:
Referral information can also be sent to NSLHD and HammondCare (who have a formal partnership in place to provide palliative care services)
NSLHD Referral
https://www.nslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/Palliative-Care/Pages/Outpatient-services.aspx
HammondCare Palliative Care
https://www.hammond.com.au/care/palliative-supportive-care
Northern Sydney Home Nursing.
https://www.nslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/pach/Pages/NSHNS.aspx
Healthy End of Life Planning and Pro-active End-of-Life Care and Prescribing
This webinar shares detailed information on the Healthy End of Life Planning (HELP) App developed by La Trobe University and caring@home’s Prompts for End-of-Life Planning (PELP) Framework, National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List and palliMEDS app.
Healthy End of Life Planning (HELP): Staying connected and accessing support from informal care networks is essential as we age and reach the end of life. The HELP app is part of an evidence based palliative care social prescribing model that is activating these support networks across Australia. This session will explore how health professionals can support this essential aspect of care as part of routine practice.
Pro-active end-of-life care: caring@home has developed a framework to support GPs to provide quality, person-centred care that aligns with the patient’s preferences – The Prompts for End-of-Life (PELP) framework.
This framework identifies four clinical end of life processes including:
- Advance care planning and person-centred care based on need (at risk of dying)
- Transition of focus of care needs from restorative to palliative (likely to die soon)
- Terminal care needs (dying) After death care (bereavement).
GPs also need to be adept in providing effective symptom control to patients in their last weeks of life. The palliMEDS app support GPs to provide optimal symptom management to their patients in the community.
A subset of this list the is the National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List which identifies four medicines for use by home-based palliative patients in the terminal phase who require urgent symptom relief.
Learning outcomes:
- Describe the benefits of Healthy End of Life Planning (HELP)
- Describe the concept of palliative care social prescribing
- Implement a framework of palliative care to support timely planning and high-quality care for patients with a life-limiting illness
- Use the palliMEDS app to support prescribing for common symptoms in the terminal phase
- Identify 4 core palliative care medicines to support access to medicines in the community for urgent situations.
Speakers:
Prof Liz Reymond MBBS(Hons), PhD, FRACGP, FAChPM – Professor Reymond is Director of the national caring@home project. She is Co-Director of the Queensland Statewide Office of Advance Care Planning and PallConsult clinician support service. Liz offers education and training on end-of-life care to members of the community and clinicians across Queensland.
Niki Read, Public Health Palliative Care Unit, La Trobe University – Niki Read from the Public Health Palliative Care Unit at La Trobe University will outline the HELP Social Prescribing Service Model and present the latest research showing real benefits of network-centered-care at end of life.
Deprescribing Psychotropics
The overuse of antidepressants and psychiatric medications is a growing concern for healthcare and regulatory bodies, including the NDIS Commission and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Both the Disability and Aged Care Royal Commissions have called for efforts to reduce this overuse.
Stopping these medications safely has been neglected in psychiatric teaching, leading to significant harm from severe and prolonged withdrawal effects. The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines aim to address this gap.
Withdrawal effects are more common and severe than previously recognized, with some people experiencing debilitating protracted withdrawal syndromes. These effects can be mistaken for a relapse or new condition, highlighting the need for better recognition and distinction.
Advances in the science of stopping antidepressants have led to updated UK guidelines on gradual, hyperbolic tapering.
Target Audience: GPs, Nurses, Allied Health Professionals, Pharmacists, any prescribers or clinicians that have regular contact with people using psychotropic medications
Learning outcomes:
- Identify when, why and in whom to stop antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs
- Describe the risks of stopping these medications too quickly
- Distinguish between withdrawal effects from these drugs and relapse of an underlying condition
- Apply the latest principles in safe tapering to stopping these drugs classes, adjusted to the individual patient
Speakers:
Dr. Mark Horowitz MBBS PhD is a Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry with the NHS in England and a Visiting Lecturer in Psychopharmacology at King’s College London. He holds a PhD in the neurobiology of depression and antidepressant action.
Dr. Horowitz is the lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines and co-authored the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ guidance on ‘Stopping Antidepressants’. His work has informed NICE guidelines on safe tapering of psychiatric medications. He has published papers in top journals and is an Associate Editor of Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology. His personal experience with psychiatric medication withdrawal has greatly influenced his work.
Resources:
Dr Mark Horowitz Presentation - Deprescribing Psychotropics
RACGP Link to guidelines: Maudlsey Deprescribing Guidelines
A Comprehensive Approach to Managing Dementia and Frailty in Older Adults
This recording considers a wholistic team approach to managing dementia in the community and supporting prevention of deteriorating health including frailty incidence.
How do we use preventative strategies such as physical activity to slow the progression of both diseases? At what stage does dementia impact the management of frailty?
Topics Covered:
- National Dementia Action Plan 2024-2034
- Managing patients with dementia and frailty
- Implementing Home Medication Reviews
- Lifestyle modifications and their impact on people with dementia and frailty
TARGET AUDIENCE:
GP’s, Practice Managers, Practice Nurses, Pharmacists and Allied Health Professionals working in General Practice in the Northern Sydney Region
Learning outcomes:
- Analyse the impact of physical activity and lifestyle modifications at various stages of dementia, and develop comprehensive, patient-centered support plans that leverage a multidisciplinary team approach
- Evaluate and innovate clinical practices for managing this cohort
- Develop strategies for Home Medication Reviews and deprescribing
Speakers:
- Prof Maria Fiatarone Singh, Geriatrician – Maria is a geriatrician specialising in the integration of medicine, exercise physiology, and nutrition to enhance health and quality of life. She has held the John Sutton Chair of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Sydney since 1999. She has led numerous clinical trials and studies in Australia and the USA, focusing on exercise and chronic disease prevention and treatment.
- Georgette Yassa, Pharmacist
- Trina Colita, Dementia/Aged Care CNC, Northern Sydney Home Nursing Service
- Hema Patel, Primary Care Advancement Coordinator, SNHN
- Debra Clark, Aged Care Lead, SNHN
Healthy End of Life Planning (HELP) App for the Palliative Care Workforce
Palliative Care services are essential for delivering the best care for people at end of life but we can’t do it all. We need to encourage our clients and their families to have a system in place to access additional support from their friends and community.
The Healthy End of Life Planning (HELP) App is a free resource designed to coordinate this support for people in palliative and aged care settings. More about the HELP APP: 
• The HELP APP | Healthy End of Life Pl...
Learning outcomes:
Viewers will gain:
- Strong understanding of network centered care and how this improves end of life experiences
- Insight into palliative care social prescribing and the HELP App
- Confidence in delivering the social prescribing model to patients and families as part of routine practice
Speakers:
Holly Smith – Public Health Palliative Care Unit, La Trobe University
Sally Brown – Public Health Palliative Care Unit, La Trobe University
Managing Pain: A Comprehensive Collaborative Approach in Residential Aged Care Facilities
This webinar focuses on the issue of pain in the frail RACF resident. Topics include assessing and recognising pain in the cognitively impaired (including the use of non-verbal pain scales), safe and appropriate prescribing in the frail and elderly, managing pain at the very end of life and opioid conversion principals. Home visiting physiotherapist, Seyed Majlessi, discusses the new model of addressing persistent pain and the collaboration needed for successful outcomes. We also touch on what to look out for to reduce medication misadventures and miscommunication during patient transfers, particularly between hospital and the RACF.
Learning outcomes:
- Assess, recognise and respond to pain in the cognitively impaired patient (including the use of non-verbal pain scales)
- Formulate safe and appropriate prescribing in the frail and elderly patients
- Implement pain management at the very end of life
- Examing opioid conversion principals including different formulations, strength and routes of administration
- Discuss new strategies to manage chronic pain
Speakers:
Professor Katherine Clark | Clinical Director of Palliative Care, NSLHD
Professor Clark is the current Clinical Director for Northern Sydney Local Health District. Katy is a Palliative Care physician who has worked as a clinician, manager, teacher and researcher in palliative care.
Dr Sara Qayyum | Palliative Care Physician
Seyed Faraz Majlessi | Physiotherapist
Faraz Majlessi is an APA Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and clinical educator. He founded MoveImprove Performance, providing specialized physiotherapy, exercise physiology, and acupuncture to seniors in their own homes. Faraz’s expertise lies in persistent pain management for the elderly. He has a passion for improving seniors’ quality of life and employs a holistic model of care that is less commonly practiced in Australia.
Palliative Aged Care Supportive Service (PACSS)
- Kelly Arthurs, Transitional Nurse Practitioner
- Alyssa Kim, Transitional Nurse Practitioner
- Sushila Khadka, Nurse Practitioner, Palliative Care
Let’s Get to the Bottom of IAD and PI’s in Aged Care
This webinar is designed to help you understand the implications of pressure injuries(PI’s) and incontinence associated dermatitis (IAD) and how these apply to the new Department of Health and Aged Care quality indicators introduced on the 1st April 2023.
In this webinar, participants will:
• Find out more about the scope of the problem in aged care
• Identify the difference between IAD and PIs
• Learn about prevention and management strategies for IADThis webinar is designed to help you understand the implications of pressure injuries(PI’s) and incontinence associated dermatitis (IAD) and how these apply to the new Department of Health and Aged Care quality indicators introduced on the 1st April 2023.
In this webinar, participants will:
• Find out more about the scope of the problem in aged care
• Identify the difference between IAD and PIs
• Learn about prevention and management strategies for IAD
Speakers:
Dr Michelle Gibb | Founder and Director of Wound Specialist Services
Michelle is a nationally and internationally recognised wound expert and nurse leader with a passion for improving patient outcomes. Michelle has a Doctor of Philosophy, Masters of Nursing Science (Nurse Practitioner), Masters of Wound Care, Bachelor of Nursing and almost 20 years’ career experience in the specialty of wounds in a range of health service contexts. Michelle is a key opinion leader in the specialty of wounds and is dedicated to improving patient outcomes through her caring and compassionate approach combined with advanced skills gained through extensive experience and education.Dr Michelle Gibb | Founder and Director of Wound Specialist Services
Michelle is a nationally and internationally recognised wound expert and nurse leader with a passion for improving patient outcomes. Michelle has a Doctor of Philosophy, Masters of Nursing Science (Nurse Practitioner), Masters of Wound Care, Bachelor of Nursing and almost 20 years’ career experience in the specialty of wounds in a range of health service contexts. Michelle is a key opinion leader in the specialty of wounds and is dedicated to improving patient outcomes through her caring and compassionate approach combined with advanced skills gained through extensive experience and education.
SNHN New Graduate Nurse Transition program – information for practices
Sydney North Health Network (SNHN) is proud to be running its New Graduate Nurse Transition program again in 2024.
This information session, for Practices in the SNHN area, will outline the program objectives, what staff and practices can do to make their new nurse feel valued and set them up for success, and how to sign up for the 2024 program.
Social Isolation and the Impact on Older People
Through discussion and case studies, viewers will be equipped with tools and tips for GPs and Practice Nurses to connect older people to local community hubs and support networks.
Discussion includes the Social/Medical aspects and the interaction between the two and how they impact social isolation for older people.
Learn practical tools/steps that GPs can take to link patients up to services/support.
Learning outcomes:
- Recognise and proactively respond to the impact of social isolation on older people
- Differentiate the need for medical or social prescription when working with patients experiencing social isolation
- Compare available services that promote social interaction and evaluate these against the lifestyle and needs of patients
Speakers:
Dr Stephen Ginsborg | General Practitioner
Dr Stephen Ginsborg is a GP with interests include mental health, and elder, palliative and intergenerational care. He cares for all ages, but the challenges of ageing have great resonance for him in his work. He is committed to developing strategies that assist community, GPs and other health care professionals to offer options for people, based on compassionate care in a manner and place of their choice.
Dr James Ibraham | General Practitioner
Dr James Ibrahim is a GP and Director of Terrey Hills Medical Centre. He is the current Chair of the RACGP Social Prescribing Specific Interest Group and Sydney North Health Network AOD clinical lead. On a mission to personalise primary care.
Let’s Get to the Bottom of IAD and PI’s in Aged Care
This webinar is designed to help you understand the implications of pressure injuries(PI’s) and incontinence associated dermatitis (IAD) and how these apply to the new Department of Health and Aged Care quality indicators introduced on the 1st April 2023.
In this webinar, participants will:
• Find out more about the scope of the problem in aged care
• Identify the difference between IAD and PIs
• Learn about prevention and management strategies for IAD
Speakers:
Dr Michelle Gibb | Founder and Director of Wound Specialist Services
Michelle is a nationally and internationally recognised wound expert and nurse leader with a passion for improving patient outcomes. Michelle has a Doctor of Philosophy, Masters of Nursing Science (Nurse Practitioner), Masters of Wound Care, Bachelor of Nursing and almost 20 years’ career experience in the specialty of wounds in a range of health service contexts. Michelle is a key opinion leader in the specialty of wounds and is dedicated to improving patient outcomes through her caring and compassionate approach combined with advanced skills gained through extensive experience and education.