The United Nations health agency describes palliative care as an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing life-threatening illness.
The World Health Organisation says it aims to prevent or relieve suffering, and treat pain and other symptoms.
Odette Waanders is the chief executive of Palliative Care Victoria.
Ms Waanders says although these services have been available in Australia for many years, some people still don't access them.
"For the population generally there is a reluctance to talk about death and dying. It's a taboo topic, it's sensitive and although we're all mortal, we all like to think we are immortal, so it's hard to have those conversations. I think that also goes to the issue that many people are unaware of what palliative care is."
She says this usually is because most people don't know what to say or do when faced with terminal illness.
"I think for many of us, we still haven't had the same exposure to death as occurred before we kind of medicalised and moved end-of-life care into hospitals, so many people don't have that day-to-day experience of dealing with people who are dealing with a life-limiting illness and they feel very uncomfortable and they don't want to make a mistake or do something that they feel maybe wasn't the right thing to do. But we do hear from people who are in that position, that they do like people to raise the topic with them and as long as you come with questions that are well-meaning and that you're really there to help in a practical way those conversations generally work well. But most people are reluctant because they're scared of doing the wrong thing I guess."
Ms Waanders adds that for many, there is a misconception that the services are only for people towards the end of their lives.
She says another challenge is ensuring people from migrant backgrounds are aware of the services.
"For many from diverse backgrounds and different countries, they may not have had any experience with palliative care, there may be no term in their language for palliative care and no real understanding of it because it's a relatively new development in health care. So that means that many people are not aware of it and don't know what it involves. Some people think it's only for the last days of life, some people think it's about giving up. But really many people don't understand that it's there to support the person and their family and a lot of the services are delivered in people's own homes."
She says it's of particular benefit for people that have religious or spiritual beliefs.
"Palliative care is much more holistic than a lot of health care. It not only aims to support the person with their physical needs, emotional needs and social, pyschological and cultural - but spiritual needs, which may or may not be based around a faith, are very important part of palliative care. So palliative care teams really look to ascertain with that person what matters to them, what gives their life meaning, what's really going to be important for them as they move towards the end of their life and how we can help them to meet those needs."
Fred Miegel is from the Palliative Care Service in Central Australia.
Mr Miegel says the needs of Indigenous patients are different than the general population.
"The work we do is with about 60 per cent Aboriginal people, mainly because the non-Aboriginal people are more of a transient population so we look at working with people in the hospital, Alice Springs hospital, Tennant Creek hospital, in Alice Springs community, but also the remote areas of central Australia, trying to help people to return to country, if that's possible, for cultural purposes - but just working with people to help them with their end-of-life issues."
Mr Miegel says there is a greater uptake of the services in Indigenous populations.
But he adds, cultural awareness is important.
"For the people that we deal with there are issues on cultural levels, and that's at quite a large sort of base in that we are dealing with people with long-term bereavement issues and we are dealing with a culture that is very traditional and also very urbanised and with that comes all the complexities of care, so people in remote areas and I think trying to work in a culturally safe way as possible."
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