Recommended Reading

Books by GoodGrief!

A Good Death Book By Maragret Rice 2019

A Good Death: a compassionate and practical guide to prepare for the end of life.

By Margaret Rice

Click here to read a sample chapter of A Good Death

Articles from around the web

Aged Care deaths from Covid-19, and criticism of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s handling of these in 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-29/aged-care-deaths-prompt-family-anger-at-regulator/12693160

Advance care planning and dementia patients.
https://www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/TabId/3781/ArtMID/6000/ArticleID/1342/Complexities-in-advance-care-planning-in-aged-care-the-ELDAC-Helpline-experience.aspx

As Coronavirus raged through nursing homes, inspectors found nothing wrong https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-28/coronavirus-nursing-homes-state-inspector-covid-19

Capsula mundi is a biodegradable burial pod:
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html

Compassion – projecting this through barriers imposed by diseases such as Covid-19
https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2020/13/covid-19-projecting-compassion-through-the-barrier-of-personal-protective-equipment/?utm_source=InSight%

Covid-19 ARDS: clinical features and differences to “usual” pre-Covid ARDS, Medical Journal of Australia, 24 April, 2020.
https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/covid-19-ards-clinical-features-and-differences-usual-pre-covid-ards

Covid-19 Asymptomatic disease
https://jammi.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/jammi-2020-0030

Covid-19 and cardiovascular disease
https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/COVID-19/COVID-19-and-heart-disease-risks

Covid-19 and neglect of other life-threatening circumstances. https://acem.org.au/News/March-2020/ACEM-urges-community-not-to-neglect-urgent-medical

Covid-19 and compromises to safe airways management
https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/consensus-statement-safe-airway-society-principles-airway-management-and-tracheal#panel-article

Covid-19 not caught from dead bodies
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/covid-19-funeral-directors.aspx

Covid-19 and funeral changes
https://www.choice.com.au/health-and-body/healthy-ageing/ageing-and-retirement/articles/restricted-funerals-during-covid-19-coronavirus-outbreak

Covid-19 lung damage
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/what-coronavirus-does-to-the-lungs

Covid-19 and numbers needing hospitalisation – a global literature survey
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7441837/#:~:text=Calculation%20of%20weighted%20averages%20for,%25)%20die%20(Table%201

COVID-19 pneumonia: different respiratory treatments for different phenotypes? By the American Thoracic Society
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00134-020-06033-2

Covid-19: They didn’t all have to die, a moment of reflection as US Covid deaths reach 100,000. Analysis by Stephen Collinson CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/27/politics/100000-deaths-moment-of-reflection/index.html

Coronavirus widens healthcare divide between USA’s red and blue states.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-05-25/california-and-texas-decade-obamacare-two-visions

Covid-19 changes the way we care for the dead.
https://theconversation.com/small-funerals-online-memorials-and-grieving-from-afar-the-coronavirus-is-changing-how-we-care-for-the-dead-134647

Covid-19 Telemedicine and changes in the doctor-patient relationship.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767746?utm_source=undefined&utm_campaign=content-shareicons&utm_content=article_engagement&utm_medium=social&utm_term=070820#.XwUI0Pi0WGN.email

Covid- 19 This is the bleak heart of the world’s deadliest pandemic.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-bergamo.html?campaign_id=154&emc=edit_cb_20200327&instance_id=17154&nl

Death Doulas - What role do Death Doulas play in end‐of‐life care? A systematic review.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hsc.12660

Death Doulas - The Voices of Death Doulas About Their Role in End-Of-Life Care, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31448464/

Death doulas help 'take the fear away' when loved ones die
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-06/families-turn-to-death-doulas-as-their-loved-ones-die/11270176

Endless life on a ventilator – when ventilation goes too far
http://impossiblechoice.org/deciding-when-a-life-is-no-longer-worth-living/

How to plan for a good death, following the example of good birth advocate Sheila Kitzinger
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/19/how-to-plan-for-a-good-death-sheila-kitzinger

Elder abuse examined. Elder Abuse: Understanding Issues, Frameworks and Responses

https://aifs.gov.au/publications/elder-abuse. 2016 report.

Elder abuse and Covid-19

https://communitycarereview.com.au/2020/04/21/covid-19-raises-elder-abuse-concerns/

Five Invitations: Discovering what death can teach us about living fully, by Buddhist teacher Frank Ostaseski
https://fiveinvitations.com/thought-catalog-5-things-death-can-teach-us-about-living-life-to-the-fullest/

Inseparable Until the End
https://thepulse.org.au/2021/08/04/inseparable-until-the-end-husband-comforts-wife-during-her-final-moments-at-blacktown-hospital/

Loneliness can lead to an early death
https://www.cheatsheet.com/health-fitness/surprising-ways-loneliness-can-actually-kill-you.html/

Loneliness can lead to an early death
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201901/can-you-die-loneliness

Meals times – an end of life human rights approach:
https://hellocaremail.com.au/one-happy-year-might-seem-better-option-three-unhappy-years-end-life-human-rights-approach-meal-times/

Music Therapy in palliative care: current perspectives
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11923741

Pharmacists in palliative care
https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/pharmacists-palliative-care/?doing_wp_cron=1591760784.0516169071197509765625

Pressure sores – Coroner’s report into Sylvia Confos death, caused by neglect of pressure sores.
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/coroners-court/download.html/documents/findings/2019/Findings%20Confos%20Final%20v2.pdf

Pressure sores - Pressure point prevalence survey report

https://www.cec.health.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/435357/2017-NSW-Pressure-Injury-Point-Prevalence-Survey-report.pdf

Paint or decorate your coffin
https://www.lifeart.com.au/designed-coffins/paint-or-decorate-yourself/

Remembering Australia’s polio scourge
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/remembering-australia-s-polio-scourge

Suicide and self-harm monitoring, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Report
https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/populations-age-groups/suicide-indigenous-australians

The reality of CPR for seniors – get the facts
https://dailycaring.com/the-reality-of-cpr-for-seniors-get-the-facts/

You only die once – we need to get it right
https://www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/TabId/3781/ArtMID/6000/ArticleID/1781/You-only-die-once-we-need-to-get-it-right-a-palliative-care-clinical-nurse-consultant%e2%80%99s-perspective-on-partnering-with-a-residential-aged-care-facility.aspx


Non-fiction

A matter life and death
by Rosalind Bradley - Jessica Kingsley publishers

Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Death and Life
by Henri Nouwen publishers

Matters of Life and Death – Key Writings
by Iona Heath

Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society
by Ross and Rachel Mckenzie

Now That the Funeral is Over
by Doris Zagdanski

Stuck for Words: What to say to someone who is grieving
by Doris Zagdanski

The Grief Kaleidoscope
by Su-Rose McIntyre

Tree of Strangers
by Barbara Sumner (Adoption)

Teenagers and Grief
by Doris Zagdanski

What’s Dead Mean? How to help children cope with death
by Doris Zagdanski

When Pets Die: It’s alright to grieve
by Doris Zagdanski

Let It Go
by Peter Walsh

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
by Margareta Magnusson

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
by Marie Kondo

A Good Life to the End: Taking control of our inevitable journey through ageing and death
by Ken Hillman

Any Ordinary Day
by Leigh Sales


Novels

The Girls
by Chloe Maree Higgins – about the death of two sisters

Year of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks – plague comes to an isolated English village


Reports

2017 - The Reforms to Human Services Inquiry Report

Delivered to the Australian Federal Government in October 2017, identified the need “to acknowledge that one of the core roles of residential aged care is to provide end-of-life care.”

Read report

2020 - KPMG Palliative Care Economic Report

Commissioned by Palliative Care Australia. Investing to Save - The economics of increased investment in palliative care in Australia

Read report

2021 - Lessons Learnt from Covid-19

By Catholic Health Australia calls on government to create clear lines of communication to avoid the confusion that beset the sectors in 2020 “at the height of the COVID pandemic”

Read report