Aged Care Groups Push for More Compassionate End-of-Life Support at Home
Peak organisations say care should be based on need, not a prediction of how long someone has left to live.
Australia’s leading aged care and palliative care organisations are calling for major changes to the way end-of-life care is funded, welcoming a Senate recommendation that would remove strict time and funding limits for older Australians wishing to spend their final days at home.
Ageing Australia and Palliative Care Australia have backed a recommendation from the Senate Community Affairs References Committee to abolish the funding and time restrictions attached to the Support at Home End-of-Life Pathway and replace them with a flexible, clinically guided model based on a person’s actual care needs.
The organisations say the current system forces clinicians to estimate how long a person has left to live before they can qualify for support, leaving many older Australians with serious illnesses unable to access the care they need.
Ageing Australia Chief Member Experience Officer Belinda Allen said end-of-life care should focus on the individual rather than arbitrary eligibility rules.
“At the end of life, people and families need care that can respond to their circumstances, not a model that puts arbitrary limits around support,” Ms Allen said.
She said older Australians who wish to remain at home during their final stages of life should be supported wherever possible with care that adapts to changing health needs.
“Access to aged care at home should be based on a person’s needs, not a prediction about how long they have left to live,” she said.
Ms Allen added that providing better support at home would also ease pressure on hospitals and the wider health system by reducing avoidable admissions and helping families better manage complex care.
Palliative Care Australia National Policy Director Josh Fear said the Senate recommendation addressed a major weakness in the existing Support at Home End-of-Life Pathway.
“The current model does not always work because access is tied to a time limit and a prognosis, rather than to a person’s care needs,” Mr Fear said.
He said the problem was particularly significant for people living with dementia, frailty, neurological disorders and other progressive illnesses, where accurately predicting life expectancy is extremely difficult.
Under the current arrangements, eligibility is generally linked to an expectation that a person has less than three months to live.
While the Federal Government recently announced that people who outlive the initial 12-week funding period will be able to receive a second round of funding from early 2027, the sector says this still fails to address the underlying shortcomings of the system.
Mr Fear welcomed the additional funding but said it remained only a partial solution.
“Providing a second round of funding for people who survive longer is a positive step, but it does not fix the core issue,” he said.
He argued that some people may continue to miss out altogether simply because clinicians cannot confidently predict their life expectancy.
Instead, the organisations are advocating for a clinically guided assessment model that determines eligibility based on unmet palliative care needs rather than expected survival time.
Palliative Care Australia is preparing a detailed proposal for a needs-based funding model, which will be submitted to the Senate inquiry into the broader Support at Home Program before the 31 July deadline.
If adopted, the proposed changes would provide greater certainty for older Australians and their families while allowing healthcare professionals to deliver care that is more responsive, equitable and focused on quality of life.
For many families across the Northern Rivers and throughout Australia, the reforms could mean more people are able to spend their final days in the comfort of their own homes, supported by services tailored to their individual circumstances rather than constrained by fixed funding periods.
