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
A welcome milestone for children and families in Western Australia🧡
PCA welcomes the official opening of Sandcastles (Boodja Mia), WA’s first children’s hospice.
Preparing to welcome its first families, Sandcastles will offer specialist palliative care, respite, end-of-life care and bereavement support in a space designed to feel like home.
This is a step towards the goal outlined in Action 2.5 of the Paediatric Palliative Care National Action Plan: comprehensive, multidisciplinary specialist paediatric palliative care across all jurisdictions.
Congratulations to Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Child and Adolescent Health Service, and the families and supporters who helped make Sandcastles possible.
Learn about Sandcastles:
Explore the National Action Plan:
https://paediatricpalliativecare.org.au/resource/the-paediatric-palliative-care-national-action-plan/
It’s not too late to join us for our National Palliative Care Standards Community of Practice webinar exploring Standard Three: Caring for Carers.
As we recognise National Carers Week, it’s a timely opportunity to reflect on how we can better recognise, understand and support the needs of carers throughout palliative care.
Join us this afternoon to hear practical insights from speakers representing MND Victoria, Dementia Australia and Continuum Aged Care Clinical Services, as they explore approaches to supporting carers’ wellbeing and embedding carer support into everyday practice.
📅 Today, Thursday 15 October
🕑 2:00pm – 3:00pm AEDT
There’s still time to register! 👇
https://events.humanitix.com/webinar-standard-three-caring-for-carers
#NationalCarersWeek #PalliativeCare #PalliativeCareStandards #Carers
More ways to be recognised in the 2027 Live Well, Die Well Art Prize 🎨
Presented by Palliative Care Australia and the Arcare Family Foundation, this year’s Art Prize features an expanded $30,000 prize pool, creating more opportunities for artists to be recognised and rewarded.
Prizes include Overall Winner, Highly Commended, First Nations Artist, Emerging Artist, Artist Living with a Disability and People’s Choice, as well as dedicated awards for Primary School and Secondary School students.
Artists of all ages and backgrounds are invited to explore the theme ‘Conversations about end of life’ through visual art.
Entries close on 11 January 2027.
👉 Explore the categories, prizes and eligibility: https://livewell.awardsplatform.com/
#LiveWellDieWell #ArtPrize #AustralianArtists
Family, kinship, community and culture can be central to caring for someone with a life-limiting illness. 🧡
For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, family and community are an important part of the palliative care and end-of-life care journey.
National Carers Week is an opportunity to recognise the role of First Nations families and carers, and the importance of culturally appropriate information and support that reflects their needs and experiences.
caring@home provides resources specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to support them in caring for someone receiving palliative care at home.
Explore the caring@home resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families: https://bit.ly/3Tua9tK
#NationalCarersWeek #PalliativeCare #caringathome #CarersAustralia
Behind every experience of palliative care is a person, a family and a story.
People who have received palliative care, or supported someone they love through it, understand the system in a way that few others can. They know what made a difference, what was difficult, what was missing, and what could be better.
The National Register of Palliative Care Consumers and Carers brings those voices into the conversations shaping palliative care across Australia.
Their insights can help researchers ask the right questions, services better understand what people and families need, educators bring lived experience into learning, and decision-makers develop policies that reflect what matters to the people they affect.
Their experiences are personal. By choosing to share them, they can also help create meaningful change for others.
Learn more about the National Register of Palliative Care Consumers and Carers: https://palliativecare.org.au/resource/national-register-of-palliative-care-consumers-and-carers/
#PalliativeCare #LivedExperience #ConsumerEngagement #PalliativeCareAustralia
New free palliative care medicines education for nurses is now available.
Developed by Ageing Australia as part of the Quality Use of Community Palliative Care Medicines Project, this free, self-paced education for nurses in community and residential aged care was shaped by workforce feedback and can contribute to CPD requirements.
Across five modules, nurses will explore:
• The National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List
• Safe and appropriate medicine use and administration
• Anticipatory prescribing and symptom management during the terminal phase
• Supporting and educating families and carers
• Practical clinical scenarios to help apply learning in practice
Participants will also be invited to join a Community of Practice, providing ongoing opportunities to connect with other learners, share experiences and seek practical support.
👉 Explore the education and register through Ageing Australia’s Workforce Hub:
https://nursing.ageingaustralia.asn.au/profile-details/0/19167/quality-use-of-community-palliative-care-medicines-project
The Quality Use of Community Palliative Care Medicines Project is led by Palliative Care Australia in partnership with Ageing Australia, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and caring@home.
#PalliativeCare #AgedCare #Nursing #PalliativeCareMedicines #CPD
