Jude Niemiec and her husband Satch had only just moved to Mount Gambier from Victoria in 2021 when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Then, six weeks later, he had a stroke.
The diagnosis was terminal but neither of them had close family and friends to turn to, with the South Australian border closed to Victoria and Ms Niemiec's mother suffering from dementia.
Mr Niemiec's children lived overseas.
Instead, they received help to get through Mr Niemiec's final days in 2022 from Mount Gambier In Home Hospice Care — a service set up in 2020 to help people going through palliative care but without a network to support them.
"I didn't really have anybody that I could ask, not seriously close friends," Ms Niemiec said.
"So, for me, it was absolutely a boon and they were nice people — I could trust them.
"And I think, for my husband, because he's quite proud, he didn't feel like he was being watched over or managed — it gave him a sense that he was being visited."
The service provides a break for those caring for people in palliative care, along with companionship and advice.
Funding to run out
Ms Niemiec found out about Mount Gambier In Home Hospice Care through a recommendation from the palliative care health service based at the Mount Gambier Hospital.
It focuses on medical needs — but there is no designated palliative care beds or hospice unit in the city.
Mount Gambier In Home Hospice Care received state government grants to set up in 2020 and then again last year, but nothing this year as a SA Health palliative care grants program came to an end.
Donations from the Hospital Research Foundation, service clubs and the public have meant the service can pay its two part-time staff until December, but not after that.
Hospice manager Sandi Elliott said the uncertainty made it hard to make plans, including expanding the service into other parts of the South East.
"It's very difficult to maintain the impetus, the enthusiasm and to get out there and say to people 'use us, use our service' knowing that we always have hanging over our heads this very short time frame that we're going to run out of money," she said.
"And whilst I understand and appreciate we have the support from the community, which has been absolutely fantastic — we've had some amazing donations from service clubs and from the local community and businesses — I don't think it's up to them to fully fund what we do."
The service would like $110,000 in annual funding.
Its 30 or so volunteers have helped 21 families so far.
Politicians blame each other
Mount Gambier-based Liberal MLC Ben Hood highlighted the issue in state parliament last week.
He urged Health Minister Chris Picton to do more to support the organisation, while also not committing the Liberal Party to funding it if it returned to power.
"The In Home Hospice Care has proved itself as a trusted, essential, free service for those who are willing to live and to die well in the South East and they definitely need this government's support," Mr Hood told the Legislative Council.
In a statement, Mr Picton said the Liberals had also not provided ongoing funding for the organisation.
"This is yet more disingenuous faux-outrage from Ben Hood and the local Liberals who didn't provide ongoing funding to the organisation when they were in office only 14 months ago," he said.
"I encourage the organisation to work with the Limestone Coast Local Health Network and its local board."
In response to questions about whether it would consider funding Mount Gambier In Home Hospice Care, SA Health said the Limestone Coast Local Health Network provided palliative care options in Mount Gambier, including in-home care, also noting that 10 additional palliative care nurses were being employed across country South Australia.
In March, the Limestone Coast Local Health Network said it would wait to hear the results of a Health Performance Council inquiry into the provision of palliative care services in South Australia, due in a year's time.
