Many years later it will still stand clearly in your memory, your wedding day, the day that started a new life together for you two. The ceremony in which you fully committed to each other and became; Mr and Mrs _____, or Mr and Mr ______, or Mrs and Mrs______. For better or for worse, until death do us part. What’s so different about a Hospice Wedding? Continue reading
Welcome to this week’s collection all things palliative from around the web. There have been some excellent palliative care-related articles published recently in the mainstream media, in addition to coverage of Dying to Know Day.
It’s Dying To Know Day (#D2KD) in Australia tomorrow, an “annual day of action dedicated to bringing to life conversations and community actions around death, dying and bereavement.” D2KD Ambassador Molly Carlile, AKA the Deathtalker, appeared on The Weekly this week, passionately arguing that the community needs to take ownership of death back from the health system, with discussion of advance care planning, preferred place of death, bereavement and more. I love her plans for her own funeral – watch the video above to find out more (it’s an extended version of the interview that appeared on TV). Continue reading
ANZSPM Aotearoa Conference 2015
Hi everyone,
Last Saturday morning I had an early start, making my way to the airport in order to fly down to Wellington for the annual ANZSPM (Australia New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine) Aotearoa (Kiwi branch) conference. A great chance for NZ Palliative Care doctors to catch up with each other, share hugs and teach each other new things. Continue reading
This morning an article was published in the conversation by Ray Moynihan and Dr Iona Heath exploring how our society deals with the uncertainty of our future health. Faced with the knowledge that all of us will get sick and die at some stage the authors suggest that this impels us all to try and find the solution to these problems, resulting in the medicalisation of our lives, over-diagnosis and over-treatment.
Let’s talk about you, and me.
Let’s talk about all the good things, and the bad things, that may be
Let’s talk about death……
Start by reading this article! I confess I am slightly surprised (and very pleased) to see this in my newspaper this morning.. what do you think?
Welcome to the 23rd edition of Elsewhere in the Palliverse. I hope you find value in this week’s links about palliative care and research – complete with animal story.
You’re welcome, animal-lovers.
As always, please share your thoughts in the comments.
Brand new blog DocGrief is “a dedicated space for health professionals to reflect and explore our relationship with death and grief, particularly when personally affected by a death in the family.” It was started by a rural GP based in South Australia. Her first post is heartfelt and I am following with interest. Continue reading
Following up from Michael’s post a few days ago about palliative medicine training jobs, here are a few more useful links for Palliverse readers thinking about enhancing their medical careers through further training in palliative medicine:
I couldn’t find much stuff online about palliative medicine training in New Zealand, Western Australia or Tasmania. If you know of any good resources on these topics, please share them with the rest of the Palliverse community! Thanks in advance 🙂
I managed to track down the burial location of the baby of one of our patients who had tragically lost their first baby, by stillbirth, over 20 years ago. Due to various reasons the grieving couple never found out where their baby was buried within a large local cemetery.
I had no idea how to start the search, so I asked around. Thanks to everyone who suggested that I contact the local council. A quick search of their website found a section where you can search for burial locations online yourself. This did not yield any results, but led me to another section of the website that allowed me to send a query email.
A few days later a real human answered, and suggested that I emailed someone else. Two days later I was sent a reply with a picture of a map of the cemetery with a highlighted area within which their baby had been buried. One of our counsellors kindly delivered the information package to the couple, time was of the essence as our patient was deteriorating rapidly.
Two days later our patient died. The bereaved spouse was able to tell us later that our patient could now be together with their long-lost baby.
I would love to hear your stories, y’all have a good weekend.
Cheers,
James
It’s National Pain Week in Australia and I wanted to share this excellent article by Pain Specialist Dr Michael Vagg, first published in The Conversation. I have huge respect for my colleagues caring for people with persistent pain. It is a challenging specialty, often dealing with complex physical, psychological, social and existential challenges, in the setting of limited resources. We often call upon their services to help manage palliative care patients (particularly with interventions like intrathecal catheters or nerve blocks). Also, as the palliative care approach is being taken earlier in the trajectory of many diseases, we are increasingly caring for patients with persistent pain. – Elissa
This week is National Pain Week so it’s only fitting that I should climb onto the soapbox again in support of people with persistent pain, their employers, workmates, friends, and families. The economic burden of persistent pain in our country is enormous, and the arguments in favour of a co-ordinated national response are compelling. The lack of such a political and economic imperative puzzles me. If you don’t believe me, perhaps this will convince you. Continue reading
As many who work in palliative medicine would be acutely aware the process of applying for next year’s job is beginning in earnest.
High on the “must do” list for some. cc https://www.flazingo.com/creativecommons
palliverse.com 