A hopeful step for families wanting to keep loved ones home at the end of life
A Senate recommendation could bring families closer to their wish: keeping a loved one home at the end of life. Here’s what a more flexible, needs-based approach to palliative care could mean.
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For many families, one wish stands above all others: helping a loved one stay home, surrounded by familiar comforts, for as long as possible. A recent Senate committee recommendation could bring that wish closer to reality for older Australians nearing the end of life.
What the Senate committee recommended
The Senate Community Affairs References Committee has recommended abolishing the fixed funding and time limits currently placed on the Support at Home End-of-Life Pathway, in favour of a flexible, needs-based model guided by clinical judgement rather than a set timeframe. Ageing Australia and Palliative Care Australia (PCA), the two national peak bodies for aged and palliative care, have welcomed the recommendation.
Why the current system falls short
Right now, access to the End-of-Life Pathway depends partly on a prognosis of less than three months to live. But as PCA’s National Policy Director, Josh Fear, points out, predicting how long someone has left is often extremely difficult, particularly for people living with frailty, dementia or other progressive conditions. “Older Australians with significant unmet palliative care needs will continue to miss out” while eligibility hinges on a timeframe rather than actual need, he said.
Ageing Australia’s Belinda Allen agrees families need care built around real circumstances. “Older people who want to remain at home at the end of life should be supported to do so wherever possible, with care that is clinically guided and responsive to their circumstances,” she said. A more flexible model, she added, could also ease pressure on hospitals by reducing avoidable admissions.
Not yet a policy change
As for now, this is a recommendation, not yet a change to policy. The Federal Government has already announced a second round of funding from early 2027 for people who outlive the current 12-week period, a welcomed but partial fix. PCA is now developing a fuller, needs-based model to present in its submission to the Senate inquiry into the Support at Home Program, due by 31 July.
What this could mean for families
For families supporting someone nearing the end of life, this growing momentum is a promising sign that the system may soon better reflect what matters most: care shaped around a person’s needs, not an arbitrary clock. It’s worth keeping an eye on how this inquiry unfolds in the months ahead.
