A new report is calling for the appointment of a Palliative Care Commissioner and $240 million a year to support home based palliative care, reports Judy Skatssoon of Community Care Review. “The report says palliative care is treated like an “optional extra” but should be a core health service in the aged … Read more
Covid-19 has exposed the confusion in our culture between being old and fit – with many more years left in you and being elderly and frail and near death. Before Covid-19, the ordinary flu would wipe out a surprisingly large number of elderly people each winter. No-one thought about it … Read more
As Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced an ‘early mark’ for Australians on social distancing restrictions from Saturday 2 May, 2020, because of our success in controlling Covid-19, the spotlight stays on the continuing sources of outbreaks – including aged care facilities. Scrutiny will ensure we don’t have a sudden … Read more
The photo of Alma Clara Corsini, a 95-year-old survivor of Covid-19 has bounced around the stratosphere since March 24. We still love it. There have been other elderly survivors since, but just sayin’.
Palliative care specialist MICHAEL BARBATO writes and teaches about how to bring love and kindness to the dying. Here are his thoughts on the challenges to this goal with Covid-19. He also has a terrific recommendation to read, Rachel Coghlan’s piece on “small but potent acts of compassion.” See the … Read more
The US Center for Diseases Control( CDC) has reversed its advice on face masks, to help control the spread of Covid-19. It now says we should all wear them in public and this contradicts what it said before. In Australia we have also followed the advice not to wear face … Read more
Palliative care is adapting to meet the needs of those with Covid-19 – and people dying of other causes. Palliative Care Australia has formed the Australian COVID-19 Palliative Care Working Group (ACPCWG) in partnership with palliative care related specialist groups. These are the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM), … Read more
Here’s some good news. Getting sick with COVID-19 isn’t necessarily a death sentence – even if you’re old. Norman Swan in his coronavirus update on March 23 finished his report by saying that 85 per cent of old people who get COVID-19 will survive. That’s something for the elderly to … Read more
I like strange as a word. It is non-judgmental, it says this is different, unfamiliar, something new to be navigated. However, we need to put a few things on the table: actively putting strategies in place to retain the rights and manage the needs of the dying, the suffering and … Read more
I was just about to walk out the door to have dinner with my sister and cousin. It’s that kind of moment isn’t it, a moment when social distancing and all it implies means that family are the best people to be with. They’ll forgive you if you suddenly sneeze … Read more
The subject of painful death came up during a recent discussion about the palliative care needs of the elderly. “It’s probably more accurate to describe the discomforts of death, rather than pain at death, since for most people it is uncomfortable rather than painful,” a palliative care nurse explained. That’s … Read more
“Hello, I’m just calling on behalf of an organisation called ‘Gather My Crew’,” Susan said when she rang in to Jon Faine’s ABC Melbourne Known Unknowns program to discuss ‘the good death’. We were taking calls from people about how we can help each other improve today’s experience of death. … Read more
Dr Michael Barbato recently made a big claim: “There is no such thing as unconsciousness.” He said this when I interviewed him for North Sydney Community Centre’s Conversations about Death and Dying. “Can you share with us, what the latest wisdom is, about the experience of the unconscious when somebody … Read more
I picked up many, many gems of wisdom from North Sydney’s ‘Conversations about Death and Dying’ on Saturday, (May 25, 2019.) It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how much you think you know about a subject there is always so much more to learn.
“I cannot conceive of any higher or more charitable motive to induce humanity to do its best than that which lends comfort to the last moments of the human being,” Rabbi Davis, 1903 When CEO of St Vincents, Sydney, Associate Professor Anthony Schembri, was working in the hospital’s archives recently, … Read more
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