About

Palliative care focuses on enhancing quality of life and encompasses all aspects of a person’s care needs including the physical, social, spiritual, psychological and emotional factors. It aims to provide relief from pain and other symptoms. It also offers a support system to help carers cope during their loved one’s illness and into bereavement. 

St John of God Murdoch Hospital’s specialist palliative care service offers an interdisciplinary approach to caring for those with life limiting illnesses. This means we are made up of a range of health care professionals and specially trained experts.

Our Palliative Care philosophy is to give people with life limiting illnesses a reason to hope and a feeling of greater self-confidence and dignity. We embrace a holistic approach to care giving, which respects the dignity and worth of each person. We believe in creating an environment that nurtures the physical, intellectual, social and spiritual wellbeing of those in our care.

We provide short-term, specialist palliative care for symptom management and end-of-life care.

Our palliative care service includes:

• The hospice – a 20-bed purpose-built specialist inpatient unit
• Palliative care consultancy service for inpatients at St John of God Murdoch Hospital
• Footprints Day Centre – practical and emotional support through creative and social activities and complementary therapies for people living with life limiting illnesses and their carers
• An outpatient clinic run by a palliative medicine specialist
• Grief and bereavement counselling and support for families and carers after the death of a loved one.