Recently my article on death etiquette in the age of Instagram appeared in Australia’s Body and Soul. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to share ideas in that forum. Thank you to the team at Body and Soul for running it – and valuing the topic of ‘death etiquette’. I … Read more
This article was updated on 27 July, 2022. It’s close to two and a half years since the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic and grief is still hitting us and loved ones are still dying. The latest Australian Covid statistics from the ABC are here. We have gone … Read more
This article was updated on 26 July, 2022. The first step to prepare for a good death is to find out more about death. We learn: Next, we prepare for our own end. To do this we: For more discussion about these 11 steps, see:A Good Death – a compassionate … Read more
Jane’s behaviours, which in a palliative care setting would have been seen as the concerns of an elderly person who was about to die, were instead wrongly interpreted as the behaviour of someone being difficult
This article was updated on 23 July, 2022. In Australia in 2022 it is the middle of winter and we now face a third Covid-19 wave. We have already had more deaths from Covid this year than the two years put together. So it’s worth revisiting our article on Acute … Read more
This article was updated on 22 July, 2022. This week the Aged Care Quality released a new fact sheet for aged care service providers titled ‘How prepared for a Covid-19 outbreak are you?’. It comes as the inquest into Covid-19 deaths begins, with news reports focusing once again on the … Read more
This article was updated 21 July, 2022. Sweden is often portrayed as the Covid-19 anti lockdown poster child. Since we posted our article below an interesting book has been published comparing the successes of the varied approaches across the world, including Sweden’s. So which country managed Covid-19 best? Devi Sridha … Read more
This article was updated on July 20, 2022. It’s sobering to think that during Covid-19, just as the risk of death from domestic violence went up, so will deaths as a consequence of elder abuse. June 15 was World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Cindy Smith, chief executive of the Australian … Read more
This article was updated on 19 July 2022. Students and staff at a Sydney secondary school, Castle Hill High School, fear they have been exposed to the nightmare product asbestos. Asbestos, once used extensively in manufacturing and building, is still causing at least 90,000 deaths per year globally, and new … Read more
Here I am, leaning in with Yvonne Weldon at her Gleebook event last night where she shared the story behind her debut novel Sixty Seven Days. It’s a story about love and loss and it’s set in the heart of Yvonne’s proud Wiradjuri heritage. Yvonne is a First Nations Australian. … Read more
“Violet is a place you can turn to for help in navigating the last stage of life,” explains The Violet Initiative CEO, Melissa Reader. It aims to help the people around the person who is dying, to help them to become resilient and to live with fewer regrets about the … Read more
Sometimes, when someone is dying they just don’t want to focus on their disease any more. And during Covid-19, like many of the rest of us, the dying need a break from that too. That’s when a biography service for the dying can be just what the doctor ordered. “We’ve … Read more
This article was updated on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. If someone witnesses my will being signed by Skype, is that valid? Yes, to witness a will via technology is now valid. Video conferencing technology like Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime and Zoom can now be used in NSW in the witnessing of … Read more
When HIV-AIDS came to Australia in the early 1980s death followed. From 1983 until 2005, 3710 people died from HIV/AIDS. More than 3000 of these came from Sydney’s gay community. We’re thinking about that and HIV in Australia as Pride Month 2022 comes to a close.( June 1 – June 30). Today, … Read more
Author Jess Hill has a valuable insight into domestic violence and how it connects to coercive control. She is the author of the Stella Prize winning book See What You Made Me Do. We didn’t really have a framework for discussing coercive control, until relatively recently. But Jess has helped … Read more
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