Samantha Bloom
Closing Keynote Speaker & Farewell Lunch Guest
Samantha Bloom is a four-time World Para Surfing champion, bestselling author and inspiration behind the #1 Australian box-office, and international global Netflix hit movie, Penguin Bloom starring Naomi Watts.
The movie is adapted from the international bestselling book, Penguin Bloom: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family. Published in 14 languages, Penguin Bloom is a collaboration between Sam’s husband Cameron, a professional photographer, and New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive. Paralyzed in an accident in Thailand in 2013, Sam has since won two Oceania KL1 paracanoe championships, and is the two-time Australian, three-time Hawaiian and World Para Surfing champion. In 2019, Sam was nominated for the Surfing Australia Female Surfer of the Year Award, and in 2022 was awarded the Surfing Australia Female Para Surfer of the Year. Sam works with numerous spinal cord injury charities around the world and is a global ambassador for Wings For Life. She is an adventure traveller, ambassador for Tourism Australia and a former neurology nurse and mother of three boys.
Sam has captivated and inspired many with her story and this is a unique opportunity to personally hear from and meet Sam, and her husband Cameron. Sam will talk to cultivating resilience, adapting to change and mental health and wellness. At the conclusion of her keynote Sam and Cam will join all delegates for lunch. We will be giving away 10 signed copies of Sam’s book during our farewell lunch. If you already have a copy of Sam’s book, bring it along to be signed.
Fiona Lysaught
Fiona has been a nurse for 45 years, loving every moment of it, even the sad times she says “have given me friendships, resilience and strength” which she values to this day. Her interests thrive in different areas, spanning from Palliative Care, Aged Care, and Aboriginal Health to Emergency Nursing.
Fiona’s career started in the far west NSW town of Walgett as an Enrolled Nurse. Walgett helped form so much of the Nurse she is today, learning about life, death and the value of belonging to a Rural community. She completed a Nursing degree in 2003, and since then has worked in varied areas including Oncology, Emergency, and Management. When leaving her position in Aged Care management she returned to Nursing several years ago, feeling very fortunate to be able to return to a position in Palliative Care.
Fiona is presenting Finding Your People and it’s all about a project that she started in Moree where she is the Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Consultant. The project involves a Jobs Australia initiative “Flat Track” where youth are provided with life skills, including education and opportunities to return to school or work. Fiona found a way to get help for the boys from Flat Track to deliver, install, and collect the equipment the clients required for care at home. Then, in her own words: “the best of projects, the most heart-warming of projects ever begun”.
Dr Kristin Bindley OAM
Dr Kristin OAM is presenting Privilege and precarity: cultivating equity-oriented approaches to dying, caring and grieving. This presentation will explore the experience of people who are positioned as structurally vulnerable at the end of life and in bereavement, and likely to encounter disadvantages that are unfair, unjust and avoidable. Through reflection on research findings and practice, critical implications for clinicians, leaders and policy-makers will be highlighted.
Dr Reakeeta Smallwood
Dr Reakeeta Smallwood is a proud Calala murri yinarr within the Gamilaroi nation. Reakeeta has worked across various fields in nursing, leading to a path of where recently Reakeeta submitted her doctoral study “Historical Trauma and Resilience: Aboriginal young peoples’ stories” at the University of Technology Sydney. Proud recipient of the Jumbunna Postgraduate Research Scholarship, Reakeeta’s ways of research has been informed by Gamilaroi ways of knowing, being and doing. Reakeeta’s methods of research include creative and poetic outputs. Reakeeta was recently appointed Senior Lecturer in Nursing, Indigenous and population health, at the University of Sydney, and aims to continue working within her community.
Reakeeta is presenting Telling Stories Healing Ways: Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing to privilege voices from Community
In Reakeeta’s own words: ‘We are the stories we tell and quite often in health research, practice, and policy stories of Aboriginal people are presented with a lens of deficit. Challenging stories about us – with us and for us is most crucial, bringing forth new ways of knowing, being and doing.”
This presentation will share stories across the spaces of health practice and research with Aboriginal lived experiences, highlighting the importance of Cultural Safety, Cultural Humility, and importance of privileging voices from within community on Gamilaroi Country.
Teresa Gillies
Teresa is a Nurse practitioner currently employed by Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District working in the Shoalhaven Specialist team. Teresa completed a Masters of Palliative Care through Flinders University and a Masters of Advanced Clinical Practice through University of Sydney. Teresa is passionate about the care she provides and the difference we can make when we truly think outside the square. She feels privileged to work with a team of like minded passionate clinicians.
Teresa and co-presenter Emily McBride will be presenting Thinking Outside the Square: BB, a Case Study. In palliative care the focus is person and family centred care. The case study of BB highlights the important role that we as clinicians can have in facilitating patient choice. It highlights the need to look outside the scope of what may seem possible or what may be usual. The case study navigates the care of BB and how we adapted our practice and experienced the highs and lows during his last 6 months of life. It was an emotional journey of advocacy for an adolescent, transgender patient living with a high symptom burden from a terminal neurodegenerative disorder. The key to his management was a collaborative approach with treating teams and highlights what can be achieved in a rural setting.
Emily McBride
Emily is a Clinical Nurse Specialist working within the Specialist Community Palliative Care Team for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. She has completed a Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care through Flinders University. Having worked in a variety of clinical and education settings over her career span, it was not until she was introduced to palliative care that she finally felt like she had “come home”. Emily appreciates the immense privilege that comes from working with patients and their families in the advanced stages of their lives where priority is placed on quality care in alignment with their preferences and values.
Emily and co-presenter Teresa Gillies will be presenting Thinking Outside the Square: BB, a Case Study. In palliative care the focus is person and family centred care. The case study of BB highlights the important role that we as clinicians can have in facilitating patient choice. It highlights the need to look outside the scope of what may seem possible or what may be usual. The case study navigates the care of BB and how we adapted our practice and experienced the highs and lows during his last 6 months of life. It was an emotional journey of advocacy for an adolescent, transgender patient living with a high symptom burden from a terminal neurodegenerative disorder. The key to his management was a collaborative approach with treating teams and highlights what can be achieved in a rural setting.
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Neetha Sebastian
Neetha Sebastian is a Senior Social Worker with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Community Palliative Care and MND Service, a position she has held with dedication since 2015. Neetha is committed to making a meaningful impact on a person’s end-of-life care journey by emphasising dignity and shifting the focus from the disease to the person. She is devoted to support the person and their significant people by providing holistic care to help them manage the changes that impact on a range of areas in their lives. Neetha began her social work career in India, where she completed her degree, and then brought her skills to Australia. She started in regional NSW, facilitating inpatient social work services at Orange Health Service.
After relocating with her family to the Illawarra, Neetha continued to apply her social work expertise across various hospital and community health settings. Her professional journey has led her to find her true calling and fulfillment in community palliative care, where she has made a significant impact with her compassionate approach.
Neetha and co-presenter Amanda Strudwick will be presenting Inclusive & Quality Palliative Care to People in Supported Independent Living Environments. Providing inclusive, quality client and family centred care requires Palliative Care services to review the unique needs of individuals in Supported Independent Living (SIL). Through Social Work led connections between clients, families, Palliative Care, and NDIS services, we can enhance communication, improve the quality of care, and offer holistic end-of-life support. Engaging in advocacy at multiple levels enables us to address systemic challenges at the intersection of Health and NDIS, thereby enhancing overall service delivery. Continued focus on partnership development, shared understanding, and capacity building with care teams is essential in delivering comprehensive care to people in SIL settings.
Amanda Strudwick
Amanda Strudwick is a Senior Social Worker with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Community Palliative Care and MND Service. She is dedicated to providing end-of-life care that is inclusive and responsive to the diverse needs of individuals and their loved ones. Amanda emphasizes building strong community connections to ensure holistic, person-centered care. Inspired by the resilience and strength she witnessed in relationships and community during her upbringing in rural NSW, Amanda pursued a Master of Social Work and began her career by supporting newly arrived refugees and migrant families in Melbourne. After relocating to Dharawal country to raise her family, she has gained extensive experience providing social work services across various inpatient health settings with ISLHD. Additionally, Amanda has been involved in student wellbeing, community engagement, and social work field education at the University of Wollongong.
Amanda and co-presenter Neetha Sebastian will be presenting Inclusive & Quality Palliative Care to People in Supported Independent Living Environments. Providing inclusive, quality client and family centred care requires Palliative Care services to review the unique needs of individuals in Supported Independent Living (SIL). Through Social Work led connections between clients, families, Palliative Care, and NDIS services, we can enhance communication, improve the quality of care, and offer holistic end-of-life support. Engaging in advocacy at multiple levels enables us to address systemic challenges at the intersection of Health and NDIS, thereby enhancing overall service delivery. Continued focus on partnership development, shared understanding, and capacity building with care teams is essential in delivering comprehensive care to people in SIL settings.
Dr Casey Sullivan
Dr Casey will be a GP breakfast presenter at the conference.
Kate Ryan
Aged Care NP, Kate Ryan has worked as a Registered Nurse for the past 20 years, gaining experience in both metropolitan and rural areas. Born in Albury, she grew up in Moree and Narrabri before moving to Tamworth for high school. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Sydney.
With a passion for rural healthcare, Kate returned to Tamworth in 2008 and has since worked in the Intensive Care Unit and retrieval service at Tamworth Hospital. More recently, she has focused on diabetes education and management for the past decade. In February 2022, she qualified as an Endorsed Nurse Practitioner and has been working at the Tamworth Diabetes Clinic in that capacity with Hunter New England Health. She is currently involved in a pilot project as an aged care Nurse Practitioner with Hunter Primary Care.
Kate views the Nurse Practitioner role as an exciting opportunity for nurses to advance their clinical skills and knowledge, as it offers greater autonomy, flexibility, and the chance to collaborate closely with other members of the multidisciplinary team. She is passionate about learning, finding the Nurse Practitioner role continually challenges her to expand her knowledge.
In her spare time, Kate enjoys exercising, particularly bushwalking, swimming, hockey, and tennis. She is a strong advocate for moving more and sitting less. Additionally, she is the mother of three strong-willed daughters and is supported by her super patient husband.
Kate will join us as a Co-presenter at our GP and NP Breakfast.
Nikki Carson OAM
Nikki Carson OAM is a Clinical Nurse Consultant Palliative Care with Murrumbidgee Local Health District. She has been a nurse for 40 years, working primarily in community nursing, breast cancer nursing and palliative care. Nikki is committed to providing access to quality palliative care for rural and remote communities and developing clinician capability to support this. Nikki has a Master of Nursing (Clinical Leadership), Western Sydney University, a Master of Palliative Care, UTS and in 2019 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for Service to Nursing.
Nikki will be presenting Becoming One: A Positive Journey of Restructure. In 2017 Murrumbidgee Local Health District Specialist Palliative Care (MLHD SPC) service was streamed. Becoming a stream provided the catalyst to attend a quality improvement project to address the problem of inequitable service provision for our regional, rural, and remote area; on-call support for less than 30% of the LHD population and two-tiered approach to rural palliative care. In her presentation Nikki will outline how this clinician-driven process adapted existing and new resources to support patients and carers, to provide a sustainable district wide 24/7 nurse on-call model, underpinned by a culture of peer support for timely and equitable access to specialist palliative care.
Dr Andrew Broadbent
Dr Andrew Broadbent is the Medical Director of the Supportive and Specialist Palliative Services at Gold Coast Health. He is co-Chair of the Queensland Health Statewide Palliative Care Network, a member of the Queensland Clinical Senate, the Statewide Directors group for Palliative Care in Queensland, Chair of the Clinical Council at Gold Coast Health and is an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor at Bond University. He has a long-term interest in developing best practice services through redesign and change. Andrew went to medical school in Dunedin and did physicians training in Sydney.
He has a Master of Health Management at the University of New South Wales and has been a Director of Specialist Palliative services for nearly 20 years in New South Wales (Royal North Shore and Hammondcare) and Queensland (Gold Coast Health).
Andrew will be presenting “Game Changing” Palliative Care reform in Queensland, the statewide doubling of Specialist Palliative Care staffing and resources. In this presentation, we look across the border to Queensland at their parliamentary enquiries and Palliative and End-of-Life Care Strategy, resulting in unique funding models to meet the strategy. Andrew will outline this journey, the enhancements delivered now and those coming in the next year and beyond. This presentation will provide an opportunity to consider how this reform journey could inspire or inform future reforms in New South Wales, as we also strive to achieve equitable access to quality palliative care across the state.
Andrew will highlight how the allocation of investment for staffing supported a staged build of the specialist palliative care workforce, and how this was approached from a leadership, governance and strategic perspective. The purpose of this approach was to enable growth in the greatest areas of need first and achieve equity of access to palliative care in rural, remote and regional Queensland. Andrew will also showcase how several Hospital and Health Services (HHS), our NSW LHD equivalents, also accepted recurrent funding to provide statewide services including:
- Gold Coast HHS to expand the Statewide Specialist Palliative Rural Telehealth Service (SPaRTa) to a seven-day service and develop and deliver a bereavement service and new resources.
- Metro South to continue the PallConsult program and build capacity across Queensland for community-based clinicians to provide quality care for people approaching end-of-life and wishing to remain at home.
- Metro North to continue the Palliative Medicine Training Pathway and ensure there is a strong pipeline of palliative medicine advanced trainees who will receive the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Fellowship.