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Palliative care can be accessed through referral from your General Practitioner, medical specialist or other health provider. To find a service in your local area go to the National Palliative Care Service Directory or you can contact the Member Organisations.
Palliative care aims to provide the best quality of life until the person dies. Early access to palliative care provides a person with the ability to control their symptoms more effectively and build a therapeutic relationship with their healthcare team and in some cases, has been proven to actually prolong life.
Palliative care can help you manage your illness, particularly pain and symptoms so you can continue to live life as well as you can, while dealing with your illness. You may need it or want to have it from early in your diagnosis or you may choose to take it up once your illness progresses to a certain stage. You may have an on-off rotation through palliative care through various stages of your illness as you have periods of wellness and illness. Palliative care can mean different things to different people.
Your palliative care team may include people from a range of health and social support professions and backgrounds including:
- doctors
- nurses
- allied health professionals
- social workers
- pharmacists
- physiotherapists
- occupational and speech therapists
- psychologists
- dietitians
- spiritual/pastoral practitioners
- palliative care trained volunteers.
Palliative care is provided where the person and their family wants to be, where possible. This may include:
- general practice or primary health care clinic
- home
- palliative care outpatients facility
- hospital
- hospice (a dedicated health facility caring for people approaching the end of life)
- residential aged care facility.
Palliative care can be available to people from the time they are first diagnosed with a life-limiting illness. People can receive palliative care for a long time before they die and may receive it at the same time as they receive treatment, sometimes referred to as supportive palliative care.