No matter your age or stage of life, you can ask your doctor to introduce you to a palliative care doctor, nurse or social worker who’ll help you consider and prepare your personal journey. For those with prolonged and advanced stages of an illness or those with a recent, life limiting diagnosis, expert and empathetic palliative care can make a massive difference.

It allows you to prioritise and organise what matters most to you, like your spiritual, financial, social and medical needs. Essential conversations around your healthcare and the details of your will can help you lead the life you want each day up to your last.

Prepare an Advance Care Plan

Preparing your will

Care Companion

Care at End of Life – Care Alert Kit

Palliative care is a human right for everybody and recognises each person as individuals. It’s part of who you are and what you want in life, and death. These choices determine the paths you take, and ensure that the journey you lead is uniquely, and undeniably yours.

There are important choices you can make around the medication you take, how and what you eat, financial options and even how you might continue with work. Learn what you want and make it more achievable by opening the discussion with your family, doctors and palliative care support.

Common questions

Family and carer rights

Adult Patient Care Charter

Child Patient Care Charter

‘Respite’ or ‘respite care’ is when someone else takes care of the person you care for, so that you can have a break. A break can give you time to do everyday activities or to relax and manage stress. In order to give the best care to someone else, make sure to look after yourself first.

Hospice and respite care

Carer Gateway

Carers Queensland

Gather My Crew

The HELP App

Compassionate Communities are everyday people who play a strong role in supporting those under care, and importantly, their caregivers during times of illness, dying, death etc. We can all play a role in our own compassionate communities by supporting each other during these difficult times.

This can be as simple as giving a neighbour a lift to an appointment, making a meal for someone who’s busy caring or exhausted by grief, or simply making a phone call to check in. By working together, we can encourage, facilitate conversation, and support each other during life’s most testing moments.

Join Compassionate Communities

Compassionate Communities Australia

What are compassionate communities?

Discussing death with children can be daunting, however hiding the truth can lead to more hurt or anxiety in the short and long term. For kids over four and teenagers, honesty and timing is key, but more than anything, is understanding the myriad of factors that inform the way a child or teenager will receive the news, and how they’ll process it.

This comes down to their developmental age, mental maturity, their exposure to and understanding of death, their relationship with the person, and ultimately how they process grief as an individual.

Help children with death of siblings

Talking to children about dying

The pain of losing a child is unimaginable unless you’ve experienced it firsthand. It can be much harder than other kinds of grief, no matter how old your child was.

But once your child dies, everything changes. After months, or years of caring for them, suddenly you stop being their caregiver. Some people experience complete exhaustion at this moment, while others discover feelings of positivity, or a complete mix of emotions all at once. You’ll see less of the healthcare teams you’ve gotten to know, from hospital to palliative care staff, and often this can be a confronting change as well.

For a range of helpful resources, visit Family & Friends and Children & Young people tiles on our homepage.

Normalise all that you’re feeling

Compassionate Friends Queensland

While society has long used names like widow and widower, there’s still no title for parents who’ve lost a child. Often, other people find the topic so sensitive that they would rather look away, or change the subject than attempt to navigate the vast, uncharted waters of dealing with a child’s death. Because this kind of grief is unique, as is the way you deal with it as an individual.

That’s why it’s essential to find people who are on the same journey like those who’ve lost a child in their family. Doctors, nurses and special needs support workers can form part of this community.

It can also be helpful to find people who can continue to say your child’s name after their passing, in acknowledgement that they existed. While this grief never leaves us, we are capable of unlocking immense strength with the support of the right people around us.

Additionally, it’s important to remember that grief can affect not just the immediate family, but can be strongly experienced by extended family members who have contributed to the role of carer in many ways.

Support services when a child dies

Hummingbird House

Precious Wings

Recognising signs of death helps families and caregivers provide the most comfortable and dignified care possible. The terminal phase can include symptoms like reduced energy, changes in breathing, less interest in food, and increased sleep. And by managing this deterioration, caregivers can provide a more personal, peaceful environment where the individual’s needs and preferences can be closely attended to during their final days.

The dying process

The Physical Process of Dying

Care at the End of Life

Living well, despite a life-limiting illness, means celebrating your capabilities and continuing or taking up certain activities that make you, you. Friends and family can play a crucial role by supporting your interests and strengths, and encouraging participation in hobbies and social activities. These efforts help maintain your sense of self and profoundly improve your quality of life, ensuring that every day is lived to its fullest.

Ambulance Wish Queensland

Grief is one of the most human experiences. It’s both universal, and deeply personal. When we lose someone close to us, it can leave us feeling like we’re missing part of ourselves. Grief manifests in various ways, including emotional, physical, cognitive, and spiritual aspects.

It’s okay to feel a range of shifting emotions, because grief is something you go through. It’s a journey through memories, what-ifs, and heartache, and a testament to our capacity to love and connect. Sharing these feelings with others and embracing support can be comforting, and transformative. For about 10% of the grieving population with prolonged grief disorder, specialist services are crucial.

Grief Counselling and Support

Grief line

Grief Tending podcast