"The amazing care my dad received at the Sutherland Hospital supportive and palliative care clinics"

I took my dad for his first appointment and he met the palliative care specialist palliative care nurse and occupational therapist during the visit. Prior to that visit, the wonderful pal nurse Christian called me to find out a bit more about my dad and his needs. During that time I told him about my Indigenous brother who has an intellectual disability and about the trouble that we were having finding connection to mob for him. He lives with my dad and connecting my brother to mob weighs heavily on Dad‘s shoulders and something that we feel will impact his end of life journey.

Christian was patient kind thoughtful, gentle and very caring. He went above and beyond and a couple of days I received a call from Tracie, an Aboriginal Health Worker, who also went above and beyond to connect me with someone who might be able to support my brother.

When we met the palliative care team, Georgie, Christian, Camilla and Ginna, it was clear that the entire team were thoughtful, respectful, kind, gentle, caring, and demonstrated incredible expertise, thoroughness and got things happening really quickly. Dad was beaming as we left the visit, he felt heard and and felt that this cohesive and collaborative team really had his back and knew what they were doing. He said it was the best few hours he had spent in ages.

And it didn’t end there. Dad’s GP was updated quickly, the pharmacy was updated so that they could adjust the dosette and the Social worker Liam rang me within a couple of hours of us leaving the appointment- to provide wonderful support in relation to my organising respite for dad for when I go on holidays.

I cannot praise the team highly enough and thank them for their expertise and care.