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 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 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
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
Russia, bombs will not win Ukraine. They might bring a short-term victory. But Ukraine will resist – with growing and longterm support from everyday people around the globe. Once these people would not have mattered. But the world is now more connected, so individuals everywhere can energise a cause. People … Read more
We’re shouting out about ‘A Community Undertaking’, featuring a great innovation in funerals on ABC’s Australian Story tomorrow night. One of our first discoveries when we started Good Grief! was Tender Funerals of Port Kembla. It’s raw, rich and true to community. And this refreshing way of managing funerals is … Read more
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
The Mary’s House Safe Place sign is not overly conspicuous, floating as it does on the glass-front of the supermarket deli shelf in front of the cheeses and olives. “Do you feel safe at home? If not, help is available in this store. Approach the Customer Service Desk and ask … 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
A story we shared about the Sacred Heart Biography Service is very popular. Now we’re excited a TV program has been made about the service. Writers from the team help people who are dying to put their life into a story, something that can have a really powerful impact. Sometimes … Read more