A proud winner of the AMEI Golden Apple Award for Programme Excellence (2019), this Professional Certificate in the principles and practice of bio-psychosocial care for patients with serious illness(es) is designed especially for social workers across all settings. It aims to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to work with the seriously ill population and their families. An intensive learning experience is distilled from the collective practice wisdom of expert faculty to guide participants in navigating the complexities of palliative care. The programme is supported by the Singapore Association of Social Workers!

The Serious Illness Conversations (SIC) Program originated from Ariadne Labs, Boston and has shown to have positive impact on patients, clinicians, and healthcare utilization. The Lien Centre for Palliative Care is proud to adapt this program to local practice through education and research to facilitate more, earlier and better conversations so that care and treatment options are aligned to patients’ values and priorities. Our SIC workshop is developed by experienced interprofessional healthcare faculty and will equip you with the structure and language to converse with seriously ill patients. 2024 runs are now open for registration!

Introducing Singapore's first and only interprofessional Renal Supportive Care Course (RSC) which aims to increase healthcare professionals' confidence and competence in caring for patients with advanced Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). It highlights the integral role each profession plays in the holistic care of these patients and their families. This popular course is taught by an interprofessional expert faculty from the Department of Renal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Department of Pharmacy, Department of Social Work, Nursing from SGH and the Division of Supportive and Palliative Care, NCCS.

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to understand the impact of advance care planning (ACP) interventions on caregiver outcomes. Meta-analysis of 17 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) showed that ACP significantly improved congruence in end-of-life care preferences between caregivers and patients. Results also showed improved bereavement outcomes, satisfaction with care quality/communication, reduced decisional conflict and burden among caregivers. No study showed that mental health of caregivers was adversely affected. Overall, this review provides suggests that ACP interventions have some benefit on caregiver outcomes.

Health practitioners working with family caregivers of older adults with severe dementia should be mindful of varying negative and positive caregiving experiences. Modifiable risk factors for trajectories involving negative experiences like more behavioural symptoms among older adults, co-residence, financial and emotional support to caregivers can be targeted in future interventions. Caregivers with “high positive, high negative” trajectory expressed greater grief and distress, and lower spiritual well-being and quality of life six months post the older adults’ death, making it important to continue to care for family caregivers even after their caregiving role ends.

Yes, finds a study using medical records of 276 patients with advanced heart failure in Singapore. Among heart-failure patients in the sample, roughly one-third of all-cause admissions are followed by all-cause adverse events (readmissions or mortality) within 30 days. The study finds that 1 in 4 all-cause adverse events may be prevented for those who receive outpatient follow-up within 14 days after discharge from an all-cause admission. However, not all patients benefit from an outpatient follow-up and it varies according to clinical complexity. While outpatient follow-up may not be necessary for low-risk patients, it may not be effective in reducing readmissions or mortality among high-risk patients. Results suggest the need to prioritize patients who benefit from outpatient follow-up for these visits.