Agmates member and Little Haven Palliative Care Business Manager Sue Manton writes:
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Sue Manton
This week is National Palliative Care Week aimed at opening the dialogue and increasing awareness on issues surrounding Death and Dying. Talking about dying and death is not something that comes naturally to Australians.
Yet each year, half a million Australians experience the impact of terminal illness.
As a society we have a long way to go before we show true compassion to our dying neighbours. Sadly until we are personally affected we have no concept of how important compassionate quality end of life care is.
Last night we held an education evening in Gympie around this issue with presenters talking on a range of topics:
Pain Management, Grief and loss, Naturopathy and spiritual support.
We heard stories of a 36 year old mother and wife with a three month prognosis, and the struggle to live when you know you’re going to die. We heard from a 56 year old who lost her husband in April 2007 after a long and painful battle with neck cancer. While his pain is over hers is still raw 18 months on.
Just on 70 health care professionals attended the evening – all committed to improving end of life care.
The one thing I took from the evening was the overwhelming plea for friends and neighbours to maintain contact, remain normal, talk, sit, listen and don’t let your fear of dying spoil your chance to provide the loving care needed.
Chances are, at some stage you will know someone who is dying or have a friend in that situation. Chances are, you won’t know what to say or do to help them. Unfortunately, not knowing all too often results in poor access to available services and poorer outcomes for the patient, their families and carers.
For more information on Palliative Care and Issues around Death and Dying please visit The Palliative Care Australia Website.
Thanks again to John Mikkelsen for his article Our Strange Standards regarding the the Courier Mail article of Doonan’s residents complaints about the establishment of a 2 bed hospice in their area and the awful stigma surrounding death and dying. As always his posts are timely, enlightening and topical.
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