Te Ara Whakapiri: Principles and guidance for the last days of life

Te Ara Whakapiri: Principles and guidance for the last days of life outlines the essential components and considerations required to promote quality care at the end of life for all adults in New Zealand. It also provides examples of useful approaches and tools that will serve as aids for the development of national and/or local resources as part of implementation.

The guidance document is based on an extensive evaluation of the available literature and is informed by local research. This ensures it is applicable to the unique context that is Aotearoa New Zealand.

The document has been endorsed by key professional health organisations in New Zealand. It marks a major step towards ensuring that all health care services across the country are focused on delivering the very best care for people who are dying and for their family/whānau whatever the setting.

The accompanying Te Ara Whakapiri: Toolkit is a set of checklists, flowcharts, tools and patient resources to be used for individual patients at the end of life.

The following resources available on this page are:

  • The guidelines and the toolkit documents for downloading
  • Generic presentation to use when presenting to colleagues and partners
  • Audio for a lecture about Te Ara Whakapiri

To further enquiries about Te Ara Whakapiri, please contact Hospice NZ.

The guidelines and the toolkit

Guidance document

Toolkit document

Click here to visit the Ministry of Health’s website for more information and to download the individual toolkit resources.

Generic presentation

This presentation Te Ara Whakapiri: Principles and guidance for the last days of life has been developed to support health professionals presenting education and workshops to their colleagues and partners.

It covers:

  • A brief history of the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying person
  • Background to Te Ara Whakapiri
  • The Toolkit (April 2017)
  • A quick tour of some of the contents
  • Implementation
  • Recognising dying and getting started.

The presentation can be adapted and we recommend you insert and include information about what is happening in your local area where indicated.

Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation

Hospice New Zealand acknowledges the support of:
Dr Kate Grundy, Palliative Medicine Physician and Clinical Director, Canterbury Integrated Palliative Care Services
Helen Sawyer, Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, Southern District Health Board

Audio of a lecture about Te Ara Whakapiri

Click here to access a one-hour audio recording and presentation that was presented for the Genesis Oncology Trust Palliative Care Lecture Series in July 2017.

Te Ara Whakapiri: principles and guidance for the last days of life. What next?
Presented by: Dr Kate Grundy, Palliative Medicine Physician and Clinical Director, Canterbury Integrated Palliative Care Services
and Helen Sawyer, Palliative Care Clincial Nurse Specialist, Southern District Health Board

Log in with your credentials

or    

Forgot your details?

Create Account