Precious Time website

North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN) receives Commonwealth funding to deliver the Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care (GCfAHPC) measure.

Many people facing the end of life wish to be cared for and die at home. This initiative boosts palliative care coordination and integration to support people who have a known life-limiting condition, by improving choice and quality of care and support in the home.

One of the activities NWMPHN is implementing is the development of Precious Time – a unique website for people who have received an end-of-life diagnosis, their friends, families and carers.

The website grew out of a community panel gathered by NWMPHN to discuss the question: “What does dying look like and how can we help people achieve this?”

One of the panel’s recommendations was to develop a service directory to support people to know which services to access. So, NWMPHN commissioned Portable, a technology design company, to deliver Precious Time.

The website provides expert advice on how to talk about dying, how to live fully supported and with dignity, how to sort out legal and financial issues, and many other issues. It also features a lively blog with regular posts from subject matter experts, and a searchable database containing more than 400 organisations and businesses that provide useful services. In 2024 a resources section and user feedback function were added.

The expected outcomes are:

• dying people and their carers have better access to services that can meet their needs 
• a useful resource to empower community members to navigate and have agency in the dying experience. 
• an extensive list of end-of-life care services available to people in the NWMPHN region.
• increased awareness of the Precious Time website among health care providers, patients and carers.

Reach of and engagement with Precious Time is steadily increasing thanks to NWMPHN’s promotional efforts. There were 44,315 views of the website from in the January – August 2024 period.

A program evaluation is underway in 2024.

Page updated 19 September 2024.