News

SPPC Annual Conference 2023

The SPPC Annual Conference will take place on 22 November at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.  Check out the programme and book your place here.

The conference will provide opportunities to hear about new approaches and practice which offer hope for improvement, hear challenging perspectives and energising inspiration, and to catch up with colleagues and make new connections.

Planned topics at the conference include:

• Intensive caring – an evidence-based practical approach to affirming each individual’s intrinsic worth towards the end of life.
• Challenges and opportunities in illuminating and understanding people’s end of life experiences.
• What can we learn from care homes about living well before dying well?
• Older people's experiences of iatrogenic suffering in hospital towards the end of life.
• Exploring how palliative care strategies are actually understood, interpreted and implemented in the real world.
• Using video to identify and understand every day brilliant palliative care, as a starting point for improvement.
• Palliative sedation - what it is, prevalence, practice, ethical issues and future developments.

For more information, check out the conference webpage: SPPC Annual Conference 2023

SPPC Response to Human Rights Bill Consultation

The SPPC has submitted a response to the Scottish Government's Human Rights Bill consultation. 

The SPPC response can be viewed here: SPPC Response to A Human Rights Bill for Scotland Consultation  

The consultation itself can be viewed here: A Human Rights Bill for Scotland Consultation

Truacanta Project Report published

The Truacanta Evaluation Report has been published. The report presents the findings from this four-year 'compassionate communities' project which used a community development approach to support five communities to improve local experiences of death, dying, loss and care.

The report reflects on the impact achieved and learning gained from the project, which ran from 2019-2023.  You can read the full report here: Truacanta Evaluation Report

The Truacanta Project was set up to support local communities in Scotland who were interested in taking community action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care, using a community development approach. The project was funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and run by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care. 

Groups in Ayrshire, Dundee, Highland, North Berwick and Perthshire were supported through Truacanta to build their own local compassionate community activity. The Evaluation Report shows that 

• four out of five of the local projects had clear positive impact at a local level, despite the challenges of establishing a new project during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• progress had been made in all the intended outcome areas set out at the start of the project
• projects have left valuable legacies within their communities
• much local work will be sustained beyond the life of the Truacanta Project

You can find out more about the project here: Truacanta

Scottish Bereavement Summit

The report of the Scottish Bereavement Summit has been published. The report draws attention to the difficulties faced by people who are grieving in Scotland, and sets out recommendations of how to address some of the key issues.

Access the full report here: Scottish Bereavement Summit Final Report

A summary version of the report is available here: Scottish Bereavement Summit Summary Report

Who supported the summit?

The Scottish Bereavement Summit took place on 13 October 2022. It was supported by a collaboration of organisations working to improve bereavement support in Scotland, including: Richmond’s Hope; Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief; Held in our Hearts; Accord Hospice; The Haven; Kilbryde Hospice; Independent Age; Macmillan Cancer Support; Brightest Start; Bereavement Charter Group; Cruse Scotland; Team Jak; ARC; Fife Young Carers; Funeral Link; Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care; St Vincent’s Hospice; Sands; St Andrew’s Hospice; Marie Curie; MND Scotland; Ardgowan Hospice; Childhood Bereavement Network; Child Bereavement UK; Faith in Older People; Baby Loss Retreat; Sue Ryder; Scottish Care; IANPC; Whyte Family Trust; The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice; Hospice UK; Alternatives Counselling & Listening Rooms; Sunrise Partnership; St Margaret of Scotland Hospice.

What happened at the Summit?

The Bereavement Summit brought together 136 people who work within the bereavement sector in Scotland. The gathering gave attendees the opportunity to explore how to work together to improve experiences of bereavement in Scotland, focusing on three specific areas:

• Formal bereavement services: how can formal bereavement support services (which provide for example counselling and access to peer support groups) be strengthened and improved?
• Informal bereavement support: what can be done to support communities of all kinds (including workplaces, schools, families and neighbourhoods) to provide better informal support to people who have been bereaved.
• Health and social care staff who experience multiple bereavements: how can staff get the support they need at work.

Recommendations

The Report suggests the following 10 recommendations:

• Improve signposting to available support.
• Increase public awareness, confidence, comfort and skills relating to bereavement issues.
• Ensure strategic direction, accountability and responsibility for improving bereavement support.
• Enable schools and educational institutions to be more supportive of people who are bereaved.
• Address equity/equality issues and improve access to services for people with a range of needs.
• Encourage and support workplaces to be better at supporting bereaved staff.
• Support opportunities for professionals to network, learn and share good practice.
• Improve Bereavement Support for Health and Social Care staff.
• Improve how bereavement services, projects and initiatives are funded.
• Ensure future action is informed by evidence, information and builds on existing work.

Access the full report here: Scottish Bereavement Summit Final Report

A summary version of the report is available here: Scottish Bereavement Summit Summary Report

More information about the Bereavement Summit, including a film of the presentations, is available here: Bereavement Summit outputs.