Palliative care
Palliative and end-of-life care
Most people who move into residential aged care will live there for the rest of their lives. This section explains what palliative care means in that setting, how plans are made in Queensland and New South Wales, what the evidence shows about common decisions near the end of life, and what families can expect in the last days.
By Dr Josh Hatch, FRACGP
Where to start
Residents & families
Aged care staff
GPs & clinicians
All topics
What palliative care means in residential aged care
Why it is not only the last days, who provides it, and why it does not mean less care
Advance care planning and goals of care
What planning achieves, the Queensland and New South Wales documents, and who decides when a person cannot
Recognising that someone may be in the last year or months of life
Why prognosis is uncertain, what the surprise question can and cannot do, and why recognising it matters
Hospital transfer at the end of life
Benefits and burdens, what the trials of reducing transfers found, and why decisions made in advance help
Eating and drinking at the end of life
Why appetite falls, what the evidence says about drips and feeding tubes, and how to keep someone comfortable
Common symptoms and how they are managed in the facility
Pain, breathlessness, restlessness and noisy breathing: what the trials show about some common treatments
The last days: what families can expect
The changes that often happen as death approaches, what helps, and what the facility should be doing
Grief, family and staff support
Grief before and after a death, when to seek more help, and why staff grieve too
Voluntary assisted dying in Queensland and New South Wales: the facts
Eligibility, the process, who may raise it, and what aged care facilities must do, from the state health departments
Palliative care: a guide for facility leadership
What Outcome 5.7 requires, where the evidence points, and the practical checks that matter
No topics match that filter.
How the evidence is graded
Where interventions are compared, they are graded on randomised trial evidence for the outcome that matters: symptoms, comfort, whether wishes are followed, family wellbeing, hospital transfer or survival. Many palliative care trials were done in hospices, palliative care units or outpatients rather than in residential aged care, and that is labelled where it applies. Where there are no randomised trials, the topic is described but not graded. Legal statements name the state they apply to and come from state health departments, legislation or End of Life Law in Australia. This section does not give doses or prescribing protocols.
- Supported by trial evidence Consistent randomised trial evidence of a benefit that matters.
- Promising, not yet proven A real signal, usually from a single trial, not yet confirmed.
- Uncertain / conflicting Trials conflict, or the evidence is too weak to say.
- Not supported Tested in adequate trials without showing a benefit.
- Risk outweighs benefit Evidence of net harm.
Last full evidence review: October 2026.