Sponsored by Invocare

Palliative care is a basic human right, yet is it accessible to everyone? Is it accessible everywhere? Or is this still an aspiration even in Australia? The latest statistics show that palliative care related hospitalisations have increased at double the rate of other hospitalisations and the majority of Australians are still dying in hospitals, adding to the increased pressure on the paid workforce and hospitals. Surely it is time to seriously rethink care at end of life? Research indicates a solely clinical model of palliative care is inadequate to address the complex aspects of death, dying, loss and grief. There needs to be a shift: Specialist and generalist palliative care, civic organisations and community networks must collaborate in order to create an effective, inclusive, affordable and sustainable end-of-life care system. 

This presentation will address why and how each of us can play a stronger role in supporting people who are caring, dying or grieving, and will share key findings on how we can enable and encourage social networks to support people at end of life. For palliative care to be accessible to everyone and everywhere, the community needs to be an equal partner in providing quality health care, leading to better quality of life and better quality of death. 

Adopting a Compassionate Communities approach recognizes that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that when caregiving, dying and grieving knock at our door - wherever we are, and whoever we are – that compassionate support will be found in all aspects of our lives and deaths.