Who will care for you?
Our multi-disciplinary palliative care teams work in the community, residential aged care facilities, inpatient settings, and specialist palliative care units.
Role |
Palliative care responsibility |
Senior medical specialists |
Provide specialist medical palliative care, and work with the other members of the palliative care team. |
Specialist palliative care nurses |
Provide complex care to enhance patient quality of life and support families. |
Social workers |
Assist patients to make their own healthcare decisions. Support and counsel patients and families. Help them access other services, (for example, Centrelink, Carer's Respite). |
Pastoral care staff |
Provide sensitive spiritual and emotional support, sacramental ministries, advance directive consultation and other services for patients and their families. |
Occupational therapists |
Enable people to participate in daily activities by educating the patient and families, and arranging equipment and home modifications. |
Speech pathologists |
Provide assessment, diagnosis, rehabilitation and support for individuals who have diseases that affect their ability to swallow or speak. |
Physiotherapists |
Help patients maintain physical function, independence and comfort. Play an important role in surgery or illness rehabilitation. |
Palliative care volunteers |
Share their time with people living with life-limiting illness by offering care and support to the patient. |
Music therapists |
Access music therapy to express feelings, reduce stress and anxiety and promote relaxation. |
Volunteers |
Palliative care volunteers have committed to sharing their time with people living with life-limiting illness. Their role is to offer care and support to both the person with the life-limiting illness and those close to that person. Care is tailored to each person’s needs, and may include:
They cannot administer any medications or perform nursing duties or personal care. They will also not perform domestic duties (such as cleaning). |