This story first appeared in the June 16, 2022 issue of our Good Grief! newsletter. What is pharmacy’s role in improving palliative care? A vital one, according to those who know. We’ve talked a lot in these pages about the need to improve access to palliative care and a 2022 … Read more
I was thrilled last night to be able to deliver an important talk, during Australia’s National Palliative Care Week, asking why we allow pain management at death to be so badly handled in our culture. The coincidence that I delivered my talk during this week was important to me. Eighty-five … Read more
(First published in the Good Grief May newsletter.) While most Australians want to have control over their end-of-life, including not having life- prolonging treatment, still today, too few people empower themselves by taking the practical steps to make this happen. Only 14 per cent of people over the age of … Read more
Picaluna Funerals does things differently and Good Grief! loves this. It’s great when you get to talk with others in the ‘death’ space working to improve our culture’s approach. Last month I was invited by Picaluna CEO Greg Inglis to speak to 22 Picaluna inductee funeral celebrants about Good Grief! … Read more
The Australian Federal Election was officially called today and last week HammondCare’s CEO Mike Baird issued a challenge to the Federal Government to match Labor’s pledge to improve aged care workforce wages. HammondCare provides aged care in Australia. Mike Baird is the former Liberal Premier of NSW. Mike’s involvement keeps … Read more
by Olivia Loukas Legacy writing – also known as biography or life writing – is a way of documenting someone’s life story, in their own words, before they die. It can take various forms and is, by its nature, a deeply personal and spiritual process. Our article about the legacy … Read more
Free drafting of documents is done for pensioners by the NSW Trustee And Guardian. NSW Trustee and Guardian is a state government agency that provides a full range of Wills and Estate Planning services for the community. The preparation of Estate Planning documents such as Will, Power of attorney and … Read more
After three decades working at Wollongong City Council’s memorial gardens and cemeteries, Operations Manager John Chilby has told the Illawarra Mercury he’s lost count of the times he’s seen families broken by misunderstandings when someone dies. “It causes more grief and break-ups between families, so we want to try and … Read more
Updated 15 March, 2022. Aged Care Reform Now (ACRN) asked if we would give their ‘13 questions – where do you stand on aged care’ campaign some publicity. It’s a year since the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety – but there hasn’t been enough improvement to aged … Read more
It’s great to be doing live events again! People ask so many interesting questions. “Is a will a legal document?” someone asked the last time I stood on a podium, just before Covid-19 hit. The lawyers in the room were surprised. For them it was ‘Legal Studies – 101.’ But … Read more
By Julia Grieves For anyone who’s been pregnant, especially for the first time, the looming reality of giving birth becomes an event etched into the calendar of one’s future. For most however, unless undergoing a booked in C-section, there is no clear grasp of exactly when this event will occur, … Read more
“Okay, what do you call ‘a good death?’,” Kerri-Anne Kennerley asked. Kerri-Anne was asking pertinent questions – prompted by her own painful experience and this has become one of my favourite interviews. Kerri-Anne’s beloved husband John Kennerley had only died four months before, in February 2019, following a long illness … Read more
Some ideas in medical studies can look very obscure and technical to the layperson – yet in reality nothing could be further from the truth. A number will transform into very practical improvements for patients, such as those who need skilled care at the end of life. The following is … Read more
By Sandra Moon Two weeks ago, with state border closures in place and Local Government Area (LGA) lockdowns due to COVID-19, my mother Eleanor took my father Barry into the Emergency Department not knowing he would never come home again. While it had been a long health battle for Dad, … Read more
RK, 97, lives in a nursing home. He has dementia which is progressing rapidly and he’s losing his swallow reflex. So he’s more likely to aspirate food and saliva – inhaling them into his windpipe, causing pneumonia. And this is what happened, leading to fever, one night in late May … Read more
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