This section will keep you up to date with news in the palliative care sector. Please note that the links below were current at the time of posting, however links may become obsolete as websites update their content.
The Australian Government has announced that the implementation of the new Aged Care Act 2024 and the Support at Home program will be deferred from 1 July to 1 November 2025. This delay aims to provide aged care providers with additional time to prepare their clients, support their workers, and ready their systems for the upcoming changes.
A new report commissioned by Advance Care Planning Australia reveals that only 33% of Australian adults have engaged in any form of advance care planning, with just 6% completing a formal Advance Care Directive. Although most people recognise the benefits of planning ahead, awareness remains low and common barriers include uncertainty about how to begin, perceived irrelevance for younger individuals, and the emotional discomfort of discussing end-of-life care.
The Australian Government has announced that the new Aged Care Act 2024 will be briefly deferred. The government will recommend to the Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, that she proclaim the commencement of the new Act to be to 1 November 2025.
This open letter from Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae MP outlines how the new Aged Care Act brief deferral will impact providers and the sector.
This research aimed to assess the value of an online palliative care knowledge resource (CareSearch) and online palliative care information more broadly from the perspective of key stakeholder organisations. A pragmatic, qualitative analytical approach was used to examine the interviews. Five themes emerged: Access, Demographic and cultural milieu, Political, policy and systemic context, Role and utility of CareSearch, and Palliative and end-of-life care research and evidence base (Quality). Interviewees were emphatic that the provision of high-quality, open access online information about palliative care and end-of-life issues was ‘critically important’, particularly in view of the ageing of Australia’s population, consequent future growth in demand for palliative care services, and ongoing health and aged care workforce shortages. The study was approved by the Flinders University Human Research Ethics Committee (Project ID: 5710)
Ageism is everywhere, widespread, and harmful. To know if we’re making progress in creating #AWorld4AllAges, the World Health Organization has created a reliable tool to measure ageism.
CareSearch is currently conducting an online survey to find out how health professionals and the community look for and use online health information including online information about palliative and end of life care.
To help ensure that CareSearch can continue to support those at end of life by providing trustworthy, evidence-based information on palliative care to health professionals and the community, we are seeking feedback on this important online resource and invite you to participate in the survey.
Participation is anonymous, and the survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.
To participate, please click on the link. https://qualtrics.flinders.edu.au/jfe/form/SV_9QQqppTohdhjdxY
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has established a central repository of resources to help extend understanding of the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. The Centre brings together hundreds of hand-picked resources from across the sector, chosen by a panel of experts to help build capability among providers, governing bodies, and workers. It will be updated by 1 July 2025 to reflect key changes made to the draft strengthened Standards. Users can search for resources by using keywords, or filtering by Standard, outcome, audience and theme.
This new framework was developed by Dementia Training Australia and commissioned and funded by the Department of Health and Aged Care to build the dementia capability of the health, disability, and aged care workforces. It outlines the level of competency required by different roles to deliver consistent, comprehensive, and high-quality dementia care to people living with the condition, their families and carers.
The General Practice in Aged Care Incentive supports older people living in residential aged care. The incentive seeks to help them receive quality primary care services from their regular provider and practice. Four vodcast videos have been produced by the Department of Health and Aged Care provide further details about the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive.
Quality indicators are standardised, evidence-based measures used to monitor and evaluate the quality and safety of care. The Australian Consortium for Aged Care developed a Quality Indicator Repository through a series of scoping literature reviews completed between 2022 to 2025. These reviews identified and characterised quality indicators used to measure and evaluate the quality of care for older people across eight key care settings The repository enables you to explore indicators for care issues and across transitions.