Palliative Care

Kim’s story

"Doula work is something I’d been searching for all along and not known about," says Kim.

This story was updated on March 10, 2023. It discusses being a death doula. Kim Somerville looks like someone you’d expect to be working with chic designer wear at Noosa or another upmarket beach. The day we chatted at her favourite local coffee shop in Sydney’s Lilli Pilli, she wore … Read more

What happens when nurses are afraid at their patients’ end of life?

What happens when nurses are afraid at their patients end of life?

This article was updated 20 October, 2022. It features Dr Katrin Berger’s thoughts on pain management at the end of life. When Dr Katrin Gerber shared her thoughts about the important topic of pain management at the end of life, it brought back many memories. My mother died in a … Read more

Artificial Intelligence in the end of life space.

This article was updated on September 12, 2022. It discusses artificial intelligence at the end of life. Suggesting artificial intelligence (AI) be used in the end of life space, might make the heart race, or cause you to recoil in horror. Do we really want to use artificial intelligence at … Read more

I learnt something new.

Margaret Rice speaking at the Calvary Bereavement Services's Living with Grief Seminar

I’ve written about grief and bereavement for years, yet I learnt something new at the seminar by Calvary Bereavement Service yesterday. It was a simple distinction, revealed at the Living With Grief seminar I facilitated. In our interview counsellor Adele Elliott explained the variety of approaches counsellors can take, with … Read more

Is the place I want to be cared for the place where I want to die?

Dr Katrin Gerber

This article was updated on 2 September, 2022. It discusses preferences of places to die. The work of Dr Katrin Gerber has caught our eye. This is because whenever the question comes up about choosing where someone wants to die, it can be hard to gauge accurately, and Katrin has … Read more

The link between loneliness and early death.

Together by Vivek H Murthy

This article has been updated on 26 August 2022. It discusses loneliness and early death. “When Vivek Murthy accepted the role of Surgeon General under Obama, he thought his main focus would be tackling the opioid crisis and obesity. Instead, he discovered a much larger health crisis, one that connects … Read more

But it doesn’t look too serious.

Staging of pressure sores, image by MyHealth.Alberta.ca

This article updated on 16 August 2022, discusses pressure sores in palliative care. With all our attention recently focused on the big threat of Covid-19, the little things that don’t appear to be a problem could sneak up on us. A reader raised her concerns about the way her mother … Read more

How was palliative care left out of this?

Avril Jackson - information officer for the European Association of Palliative Care, photo via LinkedIn

This article was updated 3 August, 2022. Palliative care advocates, this one’s for you, as a new palliative care community of practice has been announced by NSW Health. And what’s better, they are calling for participants for their palliative care community of practice. This is incredibly important work as Covid … Read more

An isolated carer pays it forward.

carerandcancer.com - an online support group for cancer carers.

This article was updated on 25 July 2022. For over eleven years, Paul P Winbanks was a cancer carer and then a palliative carer, to his beloved, late wife. “There were very few resources written from a male carer’s experience,” he explains. “I promised myself that I would ‘pay it … Read more

Don’t waste Perrottet’s $743 million palliative care spend.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet

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

Elder abuse could worsen during Covid-19.

'Covid-19 raises elder abuse concerns' by Colette Bots in Community Care Review

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

Biographies – a legacy and also a therapy for the dying.

Biography program creates a legacy for the dying

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

Libby’s story.

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

Dignity and Care at Home.

Palliative care worker Kellie Cooper-Smith

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