CareSearch. (2021). Public Health Palliative Care. Retrieved from https://www.caresearch.com.au/Health-Professionals/Nurses/Professional-Leadership/Policy-Quality-Standards/Public-Health-Palliative-Care
CareSearch. "Public Health Palliative Care". CareSearch. Flinders University, 20 Aug. 2021, https://www.caresearch.com.au/Health-Professionals/Nurses/Professional-Leadership/Policy-Quality-Standards/Public-Health-Palliative-Care.
CareSearch 2025, Public Health Palliative Care, viewed 8 June 2025, https://www.caresearch.com.au/Health-Professionals/Nurses/Professional-Leadership/Policy-Quality-Standards/Public-Health-Palliative-Care.
CareSearch. Public Health Palliative Care [Internet]. Adelaide SA: CareSearch, Flinders University; [updated 2021 Aug 20; cited 2025 Jun 8]. Available from: https://www.caresearch.com.au/Health-Professionals/Nurses/Professional-Leadership/Policy-Quality-Standards/Public-Health-Palliative-Care
A relatively new concept in palliative care is that of public health palliative care (also known as health promoting palliative care). This is based on the public health concept of a population approach linking to the World Health Promotion Guidelines ‘the Ottawa Charter’.
Stemming from this the goals of public health palliative care have been described as:
World Health Organization: ‘The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion’
The Ottawa Charter
The Ottawa Charter has provided a framework for many international efforts aimed at improving end-of-life care through greater community involvement. For example, the compassionate communities model has been used to describe engagement of communities in matters related to death and dying, such as death education in schools and engaging public policy. [2,3] Along with similar initiatives including, community engagement, compassionate cities, and public health approaches to palliative care these collectively represent ‘public health palliative care’. [4,5]
These initiatives are likely to impact both community-based social outcomes for the person who is dying as well as health services-related outcomes including hospital admissions and place of death. Evidence for the impact of public health palliative care is emerging and although it is currently limited and largely descriptive in nature it suggests improvements in health care service utilisation may be achieved. [4] Through partnerships and increased collaboration between communities and health services there is opportunity to strengthen the evidence through more robust study designs. [4,6]
Video from Palliative Care NSW
Visit the Public Health Palliative Care International website
Read the BC Centre for Palliative Care paper: Palliative Care is a Public Health Issue
Access more Public Health Palliative Care resources
Last updated 20 August 2021