Dear Friends,

Another week has passed and there is much to tell, but before we get into let spare a quick (and envious) thought for Elissa who can’t be with us to post today because she is in the middle of a well earned holiday.

Now down to business.

This clip from the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) describes a novel analogy for our selves that works neatly with a description of palliative care.

The animation is part of a suite of resources that the CAPC has made available here.

Meanwhile the team at Geripal are hosting a survey with a question that has interested me for quite a while.  Is hearing loss important in hospice and palliative care?  You can get involved in helping to find the answer here.

Quality indicators for palliative care are a hot topic worldwide.  Katheleen Leemans and Joachim Cohen have published an article in the EJPC on using quality indicator assessment in palliative care.  The EAPCblog has also published a support article on this topic.  For those who are interested in the local perspective ANZSPM’s work on this issue is available here.

On ABC Radio National a confronting background briefing asks important questions of how vulnerable persons are cared for and how aged care facilities are regulated after damning reports by the coroner into several deaths at ACFs.

This Tweet that has got a fair bit of attention over the last week shows how technology can interact with palliative care in unexpected ways.

New post: cutting the cost of medicine & scientific research w an open-source, Pi-powered, 3d printed syringe pump. http://t.co/zEH2W0xnfF—
Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) October 02, 2014

Alex Smith, @AlexSmithMD gives his trainees advice about how to connect with their patients by pretending to be cabbies on Geripall.  Although in the spirit of fair warning if you, like me do know the band Tower of Power this blog may make you feel a little older.

Responses to the Grattan’s Institutes important report on Dying Well continues to gather comment.  We republished an article from the conversation to bring attention to this last week.  Here is an article from the Australian Ageing Agenda highlighting some of the issues from their perspective.

Ehospice (Rob Gill) discusses the role of chaplains in aged and palliative care.  A nod to Ehospice is definitely required for this  

An interesting related article from Lizzy Miles via Pallimed discusses some of the reasons why pastoral care support is refused by patients and families, and how other team members can assess for needs and provide support.

Twitter (@kpedmonds) also pointed out this letter in JPM outlining a mnemonic for describing a goals of care conversation (PERSON) which may be of particular use for those who are less familiar them.

Finally for anyone who has not seen this before please consider having a look at this article from Atul Gawande @atul_gawande from The New Yorker.  It is an affirming article about dying, palliative care and the importance of dialogue.  Thanks to Erica Parker @e_pkr for the tweet reminder about the article.

Happy reading.

Michael @mchapmanonline