New resources for carers of rural Australians at end of life

Published: 3 June 2025

Article submitted by: CarerHelp (Opens in new tab)

Caring for someone towards the end of their life is challenging and can be even more so for the 7 million Australians who live outside a major metropolitan area. With less access to services, rural Australians may have to travel long distances for services or rely on telehealth. They may have longer wait times for specialist palliative care services and might need to rely on general practitioners to provide palliative care. Carers in rural areas may also need to rely more on their community networks and informal supports to provide adequate care.

Who provides end-of-life care?

Family and friends play an important role in caring for a person who has an advanced disease or life-limiting illness. In fact, as a person gets closer to the end of their life, they will require someone to reside with them and provide practical care if they want to remain at home. Even with paid supports, such as through an aged care home support package, the family carer will still provide the majority of day-to-day care.

This is an enormous undertaking that family carers often report feeling unprepared for. Frequently, family carers find they have ‘fallen’ into the role of caring for a person with increasing needs and have little information about what to expect or what services can help.

CarerHelp (Opens in new tab) provides online information and resources to better prepare Australians caring for someone with an advanced disease.

Family carers provide a majority of care. — Family carers provide a majority of care, a responsibility for which they often feel unprepared.

These include practical resources and information on how to care, self-care, services and supports, signs of dying, and bereavement.

Meeting the rural challenge

To meet the challenges and needs of rural carers, CarerHelp has recently released new resources specifically for those who are ‘Caring in the Country’ (Opens in new tab). These resources deal with the additional challenges of caring in a rural area and provide guidance about how to navigate services, manage travelling for health care, and maximise their community networks. There are factsheets and videos showing rural carers sharing lived experience and health professionals offering useful advice.

CarerHelp is further trying to meet the needs of rural carers by offering free online sessions with health professionals. These are designed to help them further prepare for the caring journey and provide an opportunity to ask questions and connect with others. The small group sessions are available to anyone across Australia who is caring for someone with an advanced disease or who is approaching the end of their life.

For more information visit: Register for online sessions — CarerHelp. (Opens in new tab)

Working with partners

CarerHelp works closely with its partners, the National Rural Health Alliance, Flinders University, and Grief Australia, to ensure that the new resources meet the needs of rural carers.

Healthdirect, a longstanding collaborator with the CarerHelp initiative, has been an essential part of this project enabling access to trusted advice, service information and supports via the healthdirect website and helpline.

Last reviewed: July 2025