About this resource
Family meetings bring the person, family and team together to share information and make decisions. This guide covers preparation, the person's involvement and consent, interpreters, agenda and roles, facilitating the meeting, documenting outcomes and following up.
Purpose
To help practitioners run family meetings that are well prepared, inclusive and lead to clear outcomes.
Who it is for
Primary profession: Social workers. Also relevant for allied health and multidisciplinary teams.
Client or participant group: Social workers and teams facilitating family meetings.
Practice setting: Hospitals, rehabilitation, aged care, palliative care and community services.
Suggested uses
- Discharge planning
- Complex care decisions
- Goals of care discussions
- Training new staff
Instructions for practitioners
- Agree the purpose with the person and the team.
- Check the person's wishes about who attends and what is shared.
- Book professional interpreters, not family members.
- Summarise outcomes and send a plain-language summary.
Accessibility considerations
Offer interpreters, support persons, and phone or video attendance.
Scope and limitations
A practice guide. Follow your organisation's procedures for consent, privacy and documentation.
Research basis
Interprofessional collaboration interventions may improve professional practice and outcomes, although the evidence is still limited. Shared decision-making and decision aids help people understand options and make choices that reflect their values. Case management practice standards describe assessment, planning, coordination, review and planned exits with the person at the centre.
- Case Management Society of Australia and New Zealand. (2013). National standards of practice for case management (3rd ed.). https://www.cmsa.org.au/
- Elwyn, G., Frosch, D., Thomson, R., Joseph-Williams, N., Lloyd, A., Kinnersley, P., Cording, E., Tomson, D., Dodd, C., Rollnick, S., Edwards, A., & Barry, M. (2012). Shared Decision Making: A Model for Clinical Practice. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(10), 1361–1367. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2077-6
- Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Article CD000072. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd000072.pub3
- Stacey, D., Légaré, F., Lewis, K., Barry, M. J., Bennett, C. L., Eden, K. B., Holmes-Rovner, M., Llewellyn-Thomas, H., Lyddiatt, A., Thomson, R., & Trevena, L. (2017). Decision aids for people facing health treatment or screening decisions. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Article CD001431. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd001431.pub5
What is included
A 3-page printable A4 PDF, including a practitioner notes page with the research basis (version 1.0).
Originality
Original Practitioner Plus content: wording, activity structure, layout and icons were created for this resource. No third-party worksheets, illustrations or text were reproduced.
