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Palliative care is for anyone of any age who has been diagnosed with a progressive, life-limiting illness. Palliative care helps people living with a life-limiting illness to live as well as they can by managing pain and symptoms to ensure their quality of life is maintained. Palliative care extends to provide support and advice for family and carers, including grief and bereavement support.
Find out more here.
Palliative care can be delivered in a range of places, including your home, in a hospital or in aged care. Your first step to accessing palliative care should be to talk to your trusted healthcare professional. This could be your doctor, specialist or community nurse. If your needs are complex or distressing then you should seek a referral to a specialist palliative care team, noting that a medical referral is generally required.
Search our Directory to find specialist palliative care services in your area.
“My first reaction was that we didn’t need palliative care. I feared what this meant. I felt more comfortable when I realised that palliative care was much more than just nursing a dying person – it was about holistic support and understanding, ensuring that my husband could still ‘live’ as best he could in the time he had left. I know my family would not have coped nearly as well physically and emotionally without it” (Carer)
Advance care planning enables you to make some decisions now about the health care you would or would not like to receive if you were to become seriously ill and unable to communicate your preferences or make treatment decisions. Ideally it will result in you completing an Advance Care Directive.
Watch this powerful video, where couples were put to the test on how prepared they would be for life’s toughest decisions. Watch Now.
Community Conversations is a free in-person, 90 minute education session that brings together palliative care experts and community members for open, thoughtful discussions on topics around living well, dying well and grieving well.
Find out if there is a Community Conversation coming up in your local area or submit a request to host one. You bring the community, we bring the cake, coffee and great conversation. Find out more here.
Designed for the community, these easy-to-understand introductory ONLINE short courses cultivate knowledge and compassion around palliative care and end-of-life-care, dying, death and grieving. You’ll learn how to build the skills to support and care for those living with a life-limiting illness.
Our next series will be starting in September. Join the Waiting List now. Find out more here.
Have tried to find the information you are looking for, but still have questions and need more assistance?
Palliative Care NSW has a dedicated Palliative Care Guidance Manager that you can call or email.
Phone 02 8076 5604
Need to contact us?
If you have questions or need more information regarding palliative care in NSW, please complete the following form and we will contact you to provide support at the earliest convenience.