This will also ensure consistent distribution of information amongst staff and that any gains produced by the training are uniform across the range of services and staff roles. These

palliative care staff will be recruited from both in-patient and community palliative care settings. Participant groups A total sample size of 60 was calculated, based on a predicted medium effect Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical size and a statistical power level above 0.8 [16]. Two palliative care services will be recruited into the study with 30 staff from both hospital-based and community based settings recruited from each service. Participants at each site will be randomised to either the intervention condition or the wait-list control condition (no intervention apart from the collection of outcome data). This control group will be see more offered the training following completion of the study. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical All attempts will be made to ensure that the sample size and the distribution of participants’ professional discipline within the palliative care team (e.g. nursing, occupational therapy, etc.) will be even across sites and conditions. Intervention Program: “Training program for professional carers to recognise and manage depression in palliative care settings” The depression training program, titled Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical “Training

program for professional carers to recognise and manage depression in palliative care settings”, was developed by drawing from the

researchers’ experience with depression training in the aged care setting [17,18] and subsequently adapting Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical this framework to the palliative care setting. A literature review pertaining to depression and psychosocial care in palliative care settings was conducted, and information relevant to the objectives of the study was Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical extracted. This evidence-based information was then used to inform the content of the training program. from In addition to the literature review, a needs analysis was also conducted which involved focus group interviews with managerial palliative care staff, non-managerial palliative care staff, and family members of patients currently receiving palliative care. These interviews were thematically analysed and information relating to staff knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy and perceived barriers to depression detection and care provision were extracted and used to further inform the development of the training program. The final program consisted of four sessions focussing on the following main topics: Understanding depression, detecting depression, responding to depression and a focus on the patient’s family members.