Need Help?
Palhelp for anyone in Southern Tasmania, with a life-limiting palliative condition. Palhelp can help you to live your best life now.
Volunteer companionship at home, in the community or in healthcare settings. Advance Care planning help. Life story biography. Spending time with you each week, doing what matters most to you.
Programs & Services
Palhelp offers a range of programs and services aimed at improving the quality of life for individuals living with a palliative illness. You may benefit from volunteer companionship at home, in the community, and for trips to hospital. Each week a volunteer spends time with you at home, or in the community. A regular volunteer may accompany you to planned hospital appointments.
Volunteer Companionship
Our volunteer companionship program is dedicated to providing compassionate support to individuals with life-limiting palliative conditions. We believe in the power of human connection to enhance your wellbeing through meaningful interactions and companionship.
'Now I laugh a lot, and feel happy, and enjoy so much around me much more. And yes, I feel connected! I am so pleased I found Hospice Visitors when I was really at my lowest. Thank you 😁’
Life Story Biography
Everyone has a unique story to tell about their life, how they have lived and loved. Palhelp, has dedicated life story biographers ready to sit down with you to listen and to help you capture and preserve your life story.
It can be powerful, validating and therapeutic to look back over your life and tell your story, your way and to have it written for you, in your own words to be cherished by your loved ones.
The Biography service is free and available now across Southern Tasmania.
Biographers will visit you, at home each week to record your voice and to transcribe your story, over a number of weeks.
Contact us to learn more.
Palliative Care in the Community
Palhelp is all about your social and emotional wellbeing, offering the support of a volunteer who is matched with you, as someone with whom you will have a shared interests. Your volunteer will visit each week for 2-3 hrs support each week.
'When Kristi first visited, I was unwell, depressed, and very lonely. Her visits are the highlight of my week. She is so wonderful. We are so alike in our interests and backgrounds. We talk and laugh nonstop for the two hours we spend together.'
Advance Care Planning
An Advance Care Plan let's people now about how you want to be cared for, when you are no longer able to tell them yourself. It's very important to make an Advance Care Plan while you are still well enough.
At Palhelp, we understand the importance of making informed decisions about your future healthcare, social and emotional welfare.
Speak to us about our free Advance Care Planning signposting assistance, which helps you to access and navigate through writing an Advance Care Directive (ACD), to understand guardianship, Power of Attorney and the need for a legally sound written will. Our professional support staff can help you to get things in order so that your values and choices are honored.
You can also download the ACD documentation here:
Advance care directive form | Tasmanian Department of Health
Walking Through Grief
Bereaved? You are not alone. Join a fortnightly support group of people who are bereaved, following the death of a relative or friend, after a palliative illness.
Walking and talking, listening and being heard by people in a similar situation can help you to endure and work through the pain of grief and loss.
It's a social group and getting out for a regular brief walk, with a supportive group of people, can be very helpful:
‘This walk is the best thing to help me with losing my husband and daughter. These people have lost love ones too and understand what each person is going through.
Yes we talk and cry with others over our loss but to know others here understand how each one feels helps us learn to live with our grief.'
The group meets fortnightly on Thursdays, from 10am, at a local venue, for an easy stroll, on level ground, followed by a visit to a nearby cafe, to continue the conversations.
Contact us if you would like to join the group.
Healthcare Setting Companionship
We understand the importance of companionship at the RHH and on the J W Whittle Unit and Peacock wards. Our volunteers are dedicated to providing compassionate support to individuals in hospitals, hospices, and other healthcare facilities. Our companionship services aim to alleviate feelings of isolation and provide emotional support to individuals.
'I visited a woman on Peacock ward, who liked to be distracted from her situation so she would ask me to tell her what I had been doing during the week. A few weeks ago I showed her some photos I had taken at the Salmon Ponds and we talked about the trees and some similar places she had visited in her childhood.
On my last visit, she told me that she remembered the photos I had showed her (from the Salmon Ponds) and said how she had kept those images in her mind and often thought of them to cheer herself up when she was feeling a bit down.'
As told by one of our Hospice Volunteers
What is a palliative illness?
A Palliative or life-limiting illness, is any condtion, which cannot be cured by medical interventions. For most people it is any condition which eventually leads to death. It can include, but is not limited to cardiac conditions, neurological conditions, such as MND, lung, brain, or other major organ disease, such as emphysema, liver disease and some cancers.
People with a palliative illness can still have treatments, along with palliative care. Having a palliative diagnosis means that you can access a range of supports from specialst Palliative Care services, including access to all of Palhelp's services.
Palhelp unfortunately cannot support people with advanced Dementia and our service is for adults only.