Animated Explainer for Palliative Care Australia

Nearly 29,000 children and young people in Australia are living with conditions that will limit their life expectancy. Many of their families will be introduced to paediatric palliative care by a treating team, and most will immediately associate the term with end-of-life.

That association creates a barrier. Families who could benefit from additional support may avoid it entirely because the language itself feels threatening. Palliative Care Australia (PCA) had built a dedicated paediatric palliative care website with resources grounded in the lived experiences of parents, siblings, and health professionals. But the gap between having good resources and reaching overwhelmed families remained.

PCA needed a way to reframe what paediatric palliative care means before families ever reached the website. Something short enough to hold attention during a crisis, warm enough to feel safe, and clear enough to prompt a next step.

We created a 60-second premium animation designed as first resource a family encounters after hearing the term “paediatric palliative care.”

The script follows a single thread. It opens with acknowledgement, moves through reassurance, and lands on a low-pressure call to action: the website is a safe place to start.

The voiceover uses two narrators directed to sound calm, genuine, and parental rather than clinical. The 2D animation style is clean and soft, with characters representing the diversity of Australian families and care teams. Animation gave PCA full control over tone and representation without the ethical and logistical complexity of filming real families in care settings.

The video is now deployed across YouTube, PCA’s website, LinkedIn, and Facebook, reaching families at the point of referral, self-referral, or first introduction.