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
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
When my friend Angela’s mother died, the nursing home handled its communication around this very badly. This, despite a lot of rhetoric about caring. But her’s is just one of many similar stories I’ve listened to, about death badly handled in a range of settings, in our culture today. Yes, … Read more
We have the impression we’re ‘not allowed’ to care for someone who’s dying at home. But why? Hands on home palliative care worker, Kellie Cooper-Smith challenges this and talks through the practical issues in her article below. Kellie and I have also created a set of practical videos about caring … 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
Here’s some good news for Australians! Australia comes fourth in a ranking of end-of-life care, in a new assessment and comparison of 81 countries by The Lien Centre for Palliative Care at Duke-NUS Medical School. The report, Cross Country Comparison of Expert Assessments of the Quality of Death and Dying … Read more
At a time when more lives are being turned upside down, and as we look towards how to respond, it’s important to understand: what is the difference between grief and trauma? In the last few weeks our screens have been bombarded with news of floods, war and the continuation of … Read more
Updated Thursday, March 3, 2022, 4pm. Sydney and surrounds on Thursday The weather system that brought floods to Brisbane and the NSW Northern Rivers reached Sydney and surrounds shortly afterwards and flooding started on Wednesday. The Cook , Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers are in flood at various points. Watch and … Read more
We’ve uploaded a set of videos on mouth care this week. They’re designed for everyday people caring for someone who is dying at home. At first glance the subject seems straight forward – and then suddenly it’s overwhelming. Am I doing the right thing? Could I hurt her? If do … Read more
Sometimes there’s an overlap between Good Grief! and the other newspaper articles I write and today’s story published in The Daily Telegraph, Mosman Daily, North Shore Times and The Wentworth Courier is a good example. Behind every dying person there’s usually at least one dedicated carer – often a whole … 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
Join our mailing list to receive our latest articles, useful resources and news on upcoming events.