Palliative Care Connect

To talk to a Palliative Care Navigator, call 1800 725 548 (PALLI8), available Monday to Friday from 8.30 am to 4.00 pm or email health.pcnavigation@sa.gov.au. Voicemail will be available after hours for a call back the following business day.

Palliative Care Connect is a statewide service that provides information and links to palliative care and bereavement supports in South Australia.

An information line is available for people with life-limiting illnesses and their family members, friends, and carers, as well as healthcare professionals.

Palliative Care Navigators, available through the information line, provide information, service linkages, and empower individuals to make choices aligned with their culture and preferences.

Palliative Care Navigators also support general practitioners and other healthcare professions, including those who work in palliative care units, acute care and aged care services to organise and link people to appropriate palliative care, supports or services.

In 2024, Palliative Care Connect will also feature a consumer-friendly website, improved volunteer coordination and access to bereavement services navigation. 

Palliative Care Connect is funded by the Australian Government through the Palliative Care Navigation Pilot program.

What is palliative care?

Palliative care is person and family-centred care provided for a person with an active, progressive, advanced disease, who has little or no prospect of cure and who is expected to die, and for whom the primary goal is to optimise the quality of life.

Palliative care helps people of all ages to live their life as fully and as comfortably as possible when living with a life-limiting or terminal illness.

Palliative care identifies and treats symptoms which may be physical, emotional, spiritual or social.

Palliative care can be accessed from the time of diagnosis. Accessing palliative care early gives people the ability to control their symptoms more effectively, build a therapeutic relationship with their healthcare team, and in some cases, has been proven to prolong life.

Palliative care is a family-centred model of care, meaning that family, friends and carers can also receive practical and emotional support in their caring role and in grief and bereavement.

What is bereavement support?

Bereavement support is available for those experiencing grief and sorrow due to the death of a loved one.

Grief can also start before someone has died and we can start grieving when a loved one is first diagnosed with a life-limiting illness.

There are various types of bereavement supports available and the type of support that is most helpful can vary based on individual preferences, needs, and circumstances. This can include counselling, support groups, online resources, forums and more.  

Everyone deals with grief differently and according to their own time schedule.