Palliative Care Research

The dignity of human life, from conception through to natural death, is a core principle of our Catholic faith.

With advances in science and health care and the high standards of living now available to many in the Western world, the life expectancy rates of those living in developed countries is at an all-time high.

While there have been significant advances in health care and improvements in life expectancy, these have not been matched by a focus on the delivery of high quality palliative care to those who are terminally ill and/or in their advanced years. While we can now keep people alive for longer, we have paid limited attention to what they need – what they deserve as human beings – to allow them to live their lives with dignity as they near death.

In recent times the pressure on the publicly funded health system in Australia has led to much public discussion about the economic rationality of ‘high cost of end of life care’, with scant consideration of the human costs of not being able to access expert palliative care at this critical time.

Against this backdrop, Palliative Care Research was established as a joint initiative between The University of Notre Dame Australia and St Vincent’s Hospital Group, which aims to provide practical research and advocacy for human life until natural death.