National Palliative Care Week 2024 - the nation’s largest annual awareness raising initiative
National Palliative Care Week 2024 - the nation’s largest annual awareness raising initiative
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Australians have a great attitude to life; we want to bring that same openness and curiosity to how we approach end of life and National Palliative Care Week gives us a chance to explore the thinking and conversations that go with it.
Last year our National Palliative Care Week campaign reached over 2.13 million Australians. This year, Palliative Care Australia and our members around the country will take that up a notch, highlighting the real and growing need to educate and empower Australians about quality of life towards the end of life.
In 2024, National Palliative Care Week runs Sunday, 19 May to Saturday, 25 May with a host of local events supported by a vibrant social media campaign - allowing Australians to connect with the ‘people at the heart of quality palliative care’ – the doctors, nurses, social workers, volunteers, and many others.
The week coincides with significant and ongoing reforms across the health, aged care, and disability sectors and is a great opportunity for us to highlight the contribution palliative care is making and what more needs to be done.
Below you will find a host of information to support your own understanding of palliative care and a range of ideas and recourses that will enable you to get involved in National Palliative Care Week 2024.
Watch this page for more news and updates as we get closer to 19 May, 2024.
Events Calendar
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Orange heart lapel pins - now available to order!
Advice for you
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Other advice, tools and support
- Understanding self-care
- Planning for self-care
- Self-Care Matters campaign resources – a Palliative Care Australia resource, which aims to support you – whatever your role in palliative care – to prevent burnout and build resilience
- Self-care for volunteers working in paediatric palliative care
- Self-care for health professionals working in paediatric palliative care
- Questions for carers to ask the team caring for your loved one
- The Essence of Spiritual Care: A learning module for health care workers
- End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) Toolkits – designed to help you in providing palliative care and advance care planning to older Australians
- Department of Health and Aged Care – palliative care education and training opportunities for anyone who works in primary care and aged care
- National Palliative Care Standards for Specialist Palliative Care Services
- National Palliative Care Standards for All Health Professionals and Aged Care Services
- CareSearch Health Professionals Centre – providing trustworthy and practical resources that are relevant to your practice
- End-of-Life Essentials: free education modules and resources
- Palliative Care Online Short Courses, Flinders University
- LGBTIQ+ Health Australia – LGBTIQ+ Inclusive Palliative Care eLearning
- End of Life Law for Clinicians – online training modules
- Palliative Care Curriculum for Undergraduates (PCC4U) – Free education modules and resources for the University and VET Sectors
- Palliative Care Education Directory – PaCE web app
- Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA) – free health placements in palliative care services and palliative approach workshops
- Paediatric End-of-Life Care Communication Course
- Education for Teachers in Schools about Paediatric Palliative Care
- Oceanic Palliative Care Conference Education Hub
- ‘Live the live you please’ documentary
- Free PCA Resource Library
- Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia – Guiding Principles for those providing care to people living with a life-limiting illness
- Overview of Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia by End of Life Directions in Aged Care (ELDAC).
- Navigating the topic of Voluntary Assisted Dying in Advance Care Planning Conversations: Guiding principles for health professionals
- PCA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples palliative care resources
- Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet: Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care
- caring@home for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families
- Gwandalan palliative care education and training
- End of Life Law for Clinicians online module – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and end of life law
- ‘Working out what’s right for your child’ – Discussion Starter Cards and Yarning Companion resources for paediatric palliative care
- Free PCA Resource Library
- Palliative care for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender People and People with Intersex Characteristics (LGBTI) Position Statement
- Palliative Care Victoria: palliative care for members of the Australian LGBTQIA+ multicultural and multifaith community
- LGBTIQ+ Health Australia – LGBTIQ+ Inclusive Palliative Care eLearning
- End of Life Law for Clinicians online module – Inclusive end of life decision-making with diverse populations
- Palliative care NSW – Homelessness and Palliative Care Report
- Department of Health and Aged Care – Exploratory Analysis of Barriers to Palliative Care – Issues Report on People Experiencing Homelessness
- CareSearch: palliative care issues for people experiencing homelessness
- Palliative Care Australia – Providing palliative care for people who are homeless; attempting to break down barriers
- Homeless Palliative Care Toolkit
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Quick links to more info
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Join the conversation
🧡Better access to palliative care – Australians call for action!
On the eve of the Federal Election, PCA took the voice of 40,000 people to Parliament House, presenting our ‘Better access to palliative care Change.org petition’ to Ged Kearney – Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, and Senator Anne Ruston – Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care.
Both have personal experience with palliative care and understand the value of and need for better access. Thank you Assistant Minister Kearney and Senator Ruston for your time, we look forward to working with you both again in the next parliament and delivering on the end of life wishes expressed in the petition.
THANK YOU to everyone who has signed and shared their deeply personal stories with us, including the wonderful Jean Kittson who has galvanised Australia on this issue. We ain’t done yet, the petition will stay open until early May, and as Jean says “let’s make some noise!”, sign now ➡️ https://ow.ly/XRuM50VnRHS
#MattersOfLifeDeath
🙂We want to make sure the first ever Australian Paediatric Palliative Care Clinical Guidelines are fit for purpose.
Before they become a reality, feedback from healthcare professionals, researchers, and those with lived experience is needed.
Your input now will help make sure that the guidelines are clear, practical, and aligned with best practice.
Take a look and complete the survey – you’ll need about 20 minutes, and we need to hear from you before April 8.
Your voice matters, start here ➡️ https://ow.ly/ir9V50VnM4u
Don’t miss this chance to ‘shape the future of paediatric palliative care’.
Our friends at Compassionate Communities Australia invite you to register for their public health palliative care short course with the renowned Prof Julian Abel.
The course is for palliative care professionals working as part of a multidisciplinary team who see themselves taking a public health palliative care leadership role.
What you will learn:
🧡Why is public health palliative care needed?
🧡The biology of compassion.
🧡Are we compassionate, what matters most?
🧡Circles of care.
🧡Power relationships: Communities, services and third sector organisations.
🧡Health promotion, harm reduction, early intervention.
🧡Positive and negative outcomes.
🧡System change and service redesign.
🧡Compassionate community clinical skills.
This online learning involves a commitment of 90 minutes every Thursday for 8 weeks, starting 8 May.
Spaces are limited, register now ➡️ https://ow.ly/RNON50Vn0cw
Successful applicants will be asked to contribute $150 towards the cost of the course.
🧡 Dr Jun Sasaki is a General Practitioner, Gastroenterologist, and the CEO of Yushoukai Medical Corp, Japan’s largest group of home care clinics.
He is an award-winning innovator, and an expert in the healthcare needs and challenges of an ageing population.
He will be at #25OPCC, sharing his invaluable insights on the future of home-based care, ageing populations, and innovative healthcare solutions. Don’t miss the chance to learn from one of the best in the field 👉 https://ow.ly/mnSH50VlYNf
Past trauma can show up in unexpected ways during someone’s end of life journey.
In this new instalment in our People of Palliative Care series, Nurse Practitioner and University of Canberra researcher Nikki Johnston shares her insights.
Nikki recalls working with a dementia patient who lashed out when staff tried to change her pad. “It wasn’t anger—it was fear. She had been beaten as a child when she wet the bed,” Nikki remembers.
Read more, learn lots ➡️ https://ow.ly/9qYg50Vm0bf
On Tuesday, we are meeting with Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney and Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Senator Anne Ruston – sharing with them your support for ‘better access to palliative care.’
With over 35,000 signatures already collected, Australians are sending a clear message to those wanting to make up the next parliament. Please help us get to 40,000 signatures, sign now and share this with your networks ➡️ https://ow.ly/2LXH50Vm0h6
Thank you!
Better access to palliative care is worth voting for!
#MattersOfLifeAndDeath
You spend your days supporting and caring for others, this is our little way of supporting and caring for you! 🧡🤗
We know attending conferences is an investment and we want to make that a little lighter on your wallet. You can now split your registration fee for #25OPCC into two interest-free instalments! 💰
We know times are tough, and we don’t want financial pressures to stand between you and the incredible experience waiting at #25OPCC. Your work in palliative care is invaluable, and you deserve the opportunity to learn, connect, and grow.
✅ Register now & select “Pay Later”
✅ Pay 50% via direct deposit to avoid the 2% card fee
✅ Pay the remaining 50% by 30 June to secure the early bird rate
We hope this helps lighten the load. We can’t wait to welcome you!
Find out more 👉 https://ow.ly/KUOw50VlYou
Jodie Clarkson – “Operation Live On” 8 years with brain cancer.
We are back with a brand new season of Thursdays@3!! 📣📣
Today we’re off to the centre of Australia, a place as tough and as beautiful as the person we are meeting. Jodie Clarkson is a mum, and a teacher – and she has been living with brain cancer since 2017 – 8 years.
When we spoke, Jodie was just about to travel to Gosford in New South Wales to receive radiation therapy.
Click play to join the conversation. 👇
Jodie has also shared her story as part of our People of Palliative Care series, read here 👉 https://palliativecare.org.au/story/planning-for-the-end-while-living-in-the-moment-how-palliative-care-helps-jodie-run-towards-her-goals/
She is also a member of PCA’s National Register of Palliative Care Consumers and Carers and is available to help shape policy and service delivery, find out more 👉 https://palliativecare.org.au/people/jodie-clarkson/
Thank you for tuning into Thursdays@3 whether that’s via PCA socials or Spotify, and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.
First Nations resources helping to Close the Gap.
On National Close the Gap Day, our friends at caring@home are making new and updated resources available to support First Nations patients and families receiving palliative care at home.
Explore the new and updated range of fact sheets and tools ➡️ https://ow.ly/E2iV50Vl85E and help close the gap.
Palliative Care Australia is a committed partner in the closing the gap journey.
#NationalClosetheGapDay #ClosetheGapDay2025
“Great things happen when passionate people come together – and you are invited to join a growing community of health professionals who are better supporting young people and families by improving end of life communication skills,” says Annette Vickery, Paediatric Project Manager, Palliative Care Australia.
With 92% of the participants describing this learning as extremely helpful or very helpful – you need to get involved. Start the Paediatric End of Life Care Communication course – eight, free, self-guided online modules are ready for you now ➡️ https://ow.ly/Zk3250VjAQv
📸 Completing the online modules opens the opportunity for you to take part in a face to face workshop, just like these guys.
This could be the best 13 minutes and 22 seconds of your day!
In a quiet residential area of Brussels, sits a house that is giving birth to a unique project which could revolutionise our approach to the start and end of life.
Here, expecting parents and palliative patients are side by side, cared for by midwives, nurses, and community volunteers, more from FRANCE 24 English ➡️ https://ow.ly/v7UM50ViPe2
The Vietnam Veterans Federation of Australia has written to Health Minister Mark Butler MP calling for ‘better access to palliative care’.
As National President, Bill Roberts says, “We are concerned that this deficiency not only may cause veterans increased suffering but, more tragically, leave the task to unprepared families.”
Thank you Mr Roberts and members of the Federation for your support.
If you believe in ‘better access to palliative care’ consider writing to the Minister yourself or sign our Change.org petition ➡️ https://chng.it/WpDfyVyLm9
#MattersOfLifeAndDeath
🧡Brian Dolan is a nurse whose clinical background includes time in emergency and mental health.
He has been voted one of the 20 most influential people in the 70-year history of the UK’s National Health Service and in 2019 got the Queen’s attention and was awarded an OBE ‘For Services to Nursing and Emergency Care’.
AND HE’S COMING TO #25OPCC! Make sure you are there to soak up his warmth, wisdom, and wit, early bird regos are open now ➡️ https://ow.ly/9PMN50VhRtw
Tune into the Tasmanian Country Hour via ABC Rural to hear how Tasmanian poppy farmers could play a leading long term role in addressing Australia’s shortage of palliative care medicines, listen now ➡️ https://ow.ly/hNo550VhR5h
Add your voice to the need for ‘better access to palliative care’, sign our Change.org petition, over 35,000 people have already ➡️ https://ow.ly/eZWS50VhR5g
#MattersOfLifeAndDeath
