Palliative Care

Palliative care - quality of life for people with a life-limiting illness, their families and carers.

PDF printable version of The National Palliative Care Program (PDF 85 KB)

The National Palliative Care Program aims to improve the access to and quality of palliative care.

The program has three sources of funding:

• Palliative Care in the Community – $62.8 million (2006–2010) to improve the standard of palliative care in the community;
• Australian Health Care Agreements – $188 million (2003–2008) to the states and territories for palliative care, and $13.2 million to the Australian Government to support national initiatives; and
• Local Palliative Care Grants – $34 million (2005–2011) to help health-related services provide better support to people needing palliative care and their families.

It does this by offering support in four broad areas:

• support for patients, families and carers in the community;
• increased access to palliative care medicines in the community;
• education, training and support for the workforce; and
• research and quality improvement for palliative care services.

Examples of the types of projects funded within these program areas include:

Support for Patients, Families and Carers in the Community

• grants to local groups, aged care providers and church and charitable organisations in the areas of fit out and equipment for palliative care premises, transition to home support, pastoral care and counselling and care planning.

Increased Access to Palliative Care Medicines in the Community

• the Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative which manages multi-site clinical drug trials in order to gather the scientific evidence required to register palliative care medicines on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and listing on the PBS.

Education, Training and Support for the Workforce

• the Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA), a sustainable hands-on work placement training program for health professionals in a specialist palliative care service of their choice.

Research and Quality Improvement for Palliative Care Services

• a consortium of four universities has been engaged to form the Australian Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC). PCOC will support services to consistently compare and measure the quality and outcomes they provide, and through this ensure continued quality improvement;
• the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Palliative Care Research Program, which comprises priority-driven research grants, small development grants and a range of scholarships and fellowships to attract new researchers into research, as well as to provide a career path for existing researchers.
• the CareSearch Palliative Care Knowledge Network, a one stop shop of evidence-based information and practical resources that will serve the needs of clinicians, other health care professionals providing palliative care, and researchers.

This is all part of the National Palliative Care Program. To find out more, email us at palliativecare@health.gov.au