Advocacy

Palliative Care Queensland is the official voice of palliative care in the Queensland community. One of our most important roles is to be the voice of those affected by terminal illnesses in Queensland. The Association does this by providing individual advocacy for people affected by terminal illnesses (patients, family members, carers and others) and collective advocacy for clinicians, stakeholder groups and for the sector more broadly.

Individual Advocacy

Over the last two years, Palliative Care Queensland has supported a number of families across Queensland by providing individual advocacy support. Not only do people affected by terminal illnesses have unique advocacy needs, they have limited time in which to access the support required to help resolve their issues.

Palliative Care Queensland has provided support to many individual Queenslanders to help them overcome issues associated with:

  • accessing specialist palliative care services
  • making an official complaint
  • accessing equipment
  • accessing funding and other community support.

If you require information about palliative care services and supports in Queensland, please contact the Palliative Care Helpline on 1800 772 273. If you require individual advocacy support, please contact the Palliative Care Queensland office directly on (07) 3211 2299.

Collective Advocacy

Palliative Care Queensland has championed a number of significant advocacy issues for clinician groups, stakeholder networks and other groups who have requested the support of the peak body. Some of the successful initiatives championed by the Association include:

  • Increases in exceptional funding to non-government palliative care providers
  • Recruitment of two palliative care medical specialists for the Cairns region
  • Postponed closure of 10 specialist palliative care beds at Canossa Private Hospital
  • Queensland Health’s creation of a Statewide Strategy for Palliative Care
  • Postponed transition of DOHA’s EPHAC software program (used by small private palliative care hospitals)

Palliative Care Queensland has also created a number of key advocacy networks to assist the Association to achieve its strategic objectives, including:

  • Statewide Palliative Care Clinical Network
  • End of Life Alliance
  • Palliative Care Network Forums
  • Non-Government Palliative Care Network