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Palliative care

Palliative care is care that focuses on maximising the quality of life for people with life-limiting conditions.

Palliative care is not designed to prevent, slow nor speed up the dying process. Rather, it aims to reduce physical, psychological, emotional, social and spiritual suffering people and their loved ones may experience.

Palliative care can be given from diagnosis and be given at the same time as active treatments. It is not “giving up”, it is about living well and, when the time comes, to die well.

PalAssist support service

A phone and online support service operated by health professionals to provide information and support for people with a life-limiting illness and their family and carers. The staff can refer to other services, including the PalAssist Counselling Service. Operates Monday to Sunday, 7am–7pm.

PalliLearn: Education for everyone

An online training course developing community awareness, death literacy and community capacity related to palliative care by providing high quality and easy-to-understand courses.

Carer Help: A guide to end of life caring

Online resources to support people caring for someone approaching the end of their life.

Common questions to ask palliative care teams

A guide for people and carers working with palliative care teams and common questions you can ask.

Palliative care information

A palliative care knowledge network providing information for patients, carers and health professionals.

Local palliative supports

A resource from Brisbane North PHN that lists services and supports available for adults with palliative care needs.

Types of Palliative Care


There are two main types of palliative care:

  • Generalist palliative care is care provided to you by your usual care team (your GP, any nursing and allied health services you may have, and aged care services). Most people only ever need generalist palliative care.
  • Specialist palliative care is care provided by a team which specialises in helping people with more complex needs such as pain issues.


You can receive palliative care at your home, either in the community or in an aged care home, in hospital, or a combination of settings.

Advance Care Planning

Advance care planning is an important part of the palliative care.

Click here to see more information about advance care planning.

Find palliative care

You can find palliative care services in the National Palliative Care Service Directory.

Doctors can refer patients to specialist palliative care services.

There are four specialist palliative care services for adults living in the region.

National Palliative Care Service Directory

A directory providing information on service type, location, hours of services and contact details for all palliative care organisations in Queensland.

Palliative and Supportive Care with Metro North Health

Public specialist service offering inpatient, outpatient and community palliative care.

Karuna Hospice Service

Community based specialist service offering in home support.

St Vincents Private Hospital Palliative Care

Specialist service offering community-based support for inner Brisbane, and an in-patient service at Kangaroo Point.

Wesley Palliative Care

Private hospital providing in patient palliative care.

Mater Hospital

Specialist outpatients service based in South Brisbane, but open to anyone in the region able to travel.

Palliative care

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia, their diversity, histories and knowledge and their continuing connections to land, waterways and culture. We pay our respect to all Australian Indigenous Peoples and their cultures, and to Elders of past, present and future generations.

We would like to express our gratitude to all the healthy ageing advocates, including people living with dementia, older people, families, carers and health professionals, who contributed to the development of this portal. Thank you for sharing your stories and transferring your knowledge to make this portal purposeful and meaningful to support people in the North Brisbane and Moreton Bay region.