Palliative care helps people living with a life-limiting illness to live as well as they can by managing pain and symptoms to ensure their quality of life is maintained.

The nationally promoted slogan is what Central Grampians Palliative Care's team leader and nurse Leanne Mouritzen said people needed to understand about what can be provided to them.

Covering three shires, including Ararat, Pyrenees and Northern Grampians, Ms Mouritzen said referrals come through from a range of doctors and specialists and patients can even self-refer.

"They don't have to be in a hospital or under a doctor," she said.

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"We go out and do our assessment and if a person is diagnosed with a life-limiting illness we can advise on the best pathways for them.

"We like to meet with people at the first instance. We can work with them and help them make the right choices so they can have that quality of life.

"When people hear the words 'palliative care' they think that means someone or they are dying."

Ms Mouritzen said nurses preferred to meet patients early on in the trajectory of a disease process because they have information on hand and build a relationship.

"Once they know we're not scary at all and can be in the background or be a bit more involved in their care if they want then down the track they can be a bit more comfortable if things don't go so well," she said.

"We are getting earlier and earlier referrals and sometimes we get quite late ones.

"The late ones are difficult. We don't get much time to build a rapport.

"I think sometimes people pigeonhole palliative care. It's not just for elderly people or people who have cancer. We cover the whole life span and a range of illnesses and chronic diseases."

Ms Mouritzen said palliative care can also encompass a patients family and provide support where needed.

"Someone who's newly diagnosed and have symptoms from a treatment the work we can do is help seek services and support," she said.

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"We can get a social worker to come in, help with advanced care plans and really just help them with any questions they have and where they can get the right information.

"Our expertise is in symptom management. This can be from the disease itself or from medications or treatments."

With over 20 years of working in palliative care, Ms Mouritzen said she started her career as a district nurse.

"I'm grateful to be able to share different ideas and my experience with the team," she said.

"I've been working here for about 18 months. No sooner did I start then COVID-19 hit.

"We've found some silver lining with COVID-19 and the restrictions. We've been able to reach out to more patients via phone or video call and have decreased our time spent travelling.

"It had its good and bad points. We haven't been able to get out and see as many people as we would like but at the same time, we also don't want to be around all the time because sometimes we can be a reminder of people of what they are going through."

Ms Mouritzen said the palliative care team across the region was continuing to grow with a vision of seeking out volunteers to help especially with bereavement support for families.

"People go through the grieving process and for those who find it difficult we can provide support," she said.

"We're working on developing a volunteer program - we're only five part-time nurses which a big area to cover and about 50 patients to cover at any one time."

Central Grampians Palliative Care is a free community-based palliative care service offering health care and emotional support to people and their carers living with a life-limiting illness. For more information call 5352 9328.

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