News

The 2025 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference (OPCC) challenged attendees’ perspectives with a diverse program inspired by health practitioners and researchers re-imagining the scope of living and dying well under palliative care. With congratulations to Palliative Care Australia and Palliative Care Queensland for hosting, the event was a fantastic opportunity to connect with big ideas, peers, and future collaborators. And of course we loved celebrating and recognising achievements in palliative care at the National Palliative Care Awards.

The awards winners were announced at a glittering gala dinner hosted by comedian and palliative care advocate Jean Kittson. Kevin Stokes, 2025 NSW Palliative Care Volunteer of the Year, was further honoured and nationally recognised for his work receiving the 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Volunteering Award. Read more about Kevin and his incredible contribution by reading our story, The cream of the crop.

Another highlight was Heike Fleischmann, Volunteer Engagement and Capacity Building Manager with Palliative Care Victoria presenting on her recently completed PCV-VALID project. The aim of the project was to help people with intellectual disability better understand palliative care, death, dying, grief and loss. A key finding from the project highlighted the significant need for people living in group homes, including staff and support workers, to be better educated about death and dying.

A range of easy-to-read, easy-to-digest tools and resources were developed to help facilitate inclusive, appropriate, and accessible conversations. The booklets including Loss of a Loved Pet, Loss of a Loved One, Let’s Talk about Palliative Care, When Someone Dies and Let’s talk about death are available for free download on the VALID website here.

Palliative Care Australia announced the winners of the 2025 Live Well, Die Well Art Prize, a national initiative that invites artists to reflect on life, loss, and connection through creativity. Special congratulations to the overall winner, Vicki White from NSW, for her artistic piece ‘Tethered To Earth’ 2024 (Photopolymer photogravure etching on paper).

We also celebrated Sarah Polkinghorne, a secondary student from NSW who was recognised among this year’s prize winners for her powerful painting ‘Letters from Joan’. We commend every artist involved in this year’s prize for sharing such moving reflections on life, loss, and connection.

To watch the full livestream of the winners announcement please click here.