Created to make difficult conversations feel easier, the Caring Conversations Project creates practical resources and support for individuals, families and professionals navigating complex health needs, changing care, important decisions and future planning.
Caring conversations can make a difference:
The Caring Conversations Project offers practical support, information and resources to help individuals, families, carers and healthcare professionals talk about health, care and what matters most.
Whether you are planning ahead, caring for someone, trying to understand your options or having these conversations as a healthcare professional, the Project is here to help.
The Caring Conversations Project supports clearer, kinder and more confident conversations around complex health needs, goals of care, advocacy and planning for the future.
A key part of the Project is also helping to reduce the fear and stigma around palliative care and showing that it can offer much more than end-of-life care. It can support comfort, wellbeing, quality of life, planning and connection throughout serious illness.
Better conversations can change how care is understood and experienced.
Our work is designed to make conversations feel clearer, easier to approach and more useful - so people feel more informed, prepared and supported.
There’s no handbook for what comes next:
The Caring Conversations Project is an independent, nurse-led initiative offering practical support, trusted information and resources to help individuals, families, carers and healthcare professionals navigate conversations, decisions and planning around health and care.
It is built on a simple idea: how we talk about care can shape how care is experienced.
Individuals, families and professionals each bring different knowledge, priorities and experiences. When communication is open and honest, understanding can grow, decisions can feel clearer, and the road ahead can feel a little easier to navigate together.
The Project is a place to learn, explore difficult topics, find practical tools and feel more prepared for the conversations and decisions that may come along the way.
Who are you here for?
Practical support to help you feel more informed, prepared and confident:
Find trusted care information
Prepare for important conversations
Understand your options
Speak up and advocate for what matters
Support your own wellbeing as a carer
Practical resources and support for clearer communication, stronger collaboration and compassionate, person-centred care.
Navigate difficult conversations with more confidence
Support thoughtful care planning and shared decisions
Strengthen connection and collaboration within teams
Build confidence, resilience and wellbeing in practice
Not sure where to begin?
Choose what feels closest to where you are right now:
Find information to help you understand your options, prepare for appointments and have a stronger voice in your care.
Find practical information and support for navigating care alongside someone you love.
Find information and practical support for navigating paediatric care, communicating with healthcare teams, advocating for your child and supporting your family along the way.
Find support for your own wellbeing, stress and the impact of caring.
Not sure how to begin? Start with our free Starting a Caring Conversation guide.
Understand what these terms mean, what support may be available and what questions you might want to ask next.
Explore what matters to you, how to have a voice and choice in future care, and the documents and legal planning that can help. You can start while you are well.
Explore practical resources for communication, difficult conversations, care planning, palliative and end-of-life care, collaboration, and professional wellbeing.
Who are we?
The Caring Conversations Project is an independent, nurse-led initiative founded by Roxie Sawtell, Palliative Care Nurse Specialist (BSc, PGdip). Drawing on 25 years of experience across healthcare, including both adult and paediatric palliative care.
The Project brings together professional knowledge, lived experience and trusted information to support individuals, families, carers and people working in health and care as they navigate difficult conversations, complex care and decisions about what comes next.
At its heart is a simple belief: how we talk about care can shape how care is experienced.
Our work is guided by empathy, honesty, collaboration, equity and a strong commitment to person- and family-centred care.
Subscribe to The Caring Conversation:
Thoughtful articles, practical guidance and honest reflections on the human side of healthcare, along with news and resources from The Caring Conversations Project.
Hosted on Substack, The Caring Conversation is free to read and subscribe to. It is also a place to connect, respond to posts, share perspectives and join wider conversations around care, communication and the experiences that shape healthcare.
Following the link will take you to an external Substack page:
Support our work:
The Caring Conversations Project is currently an independent resource project, not a registered charity.
Any contribution you make helps support the time, care and ongoing costs involved in creating practical, evidence-informed resources.
Your support helps keep this work accessible and gives the project room to grow over time.
There are several ways you can contribute:
Support a specific project or resource
Become a regular sponsor
Make a one-off contribution - even a coffee-sized donation helps
Every contribution is valued.
Together, we can grow Caring Conversations into a stronger, more accessible support network for families and professionals across New Zealand.