News

Poster Parade: Call for Abstracts

After the success of last year's virtual Poster Parade, this year we are once again running a virtual poster display and competition as part of an Autumn Season of online events to replace our usual Annual Conference.

Are you involved in an interesting project or in an area of work that you would like to promote and showcase? Why not present your work at our virtual poster exhibition? This is a great opportunity to share your learning and tell others about your work. The call for posters is now open.

More information is available here: Poster Parade: Call for Abstracts

Demystifying Death Week takes place across Scotland

Shining a light on death, dying and bereavement in Scotland.

Demystifying Death Week takes place this week (10-16 May), shining a light on death, dying and bereavement in Scotland.

Why?

People usually want to do the right thing when someone they know is caring, dying or grieving. But often they can feel awkward offering help, or worry about making things worse.

People can have questions about serious illness or death. But often they don't know who to ask.

Making plans when you’re healthy means there is less to think about when you’re ill. But often people put off making plans until it is too late.

Demystifying Death week is about giving people knowledge, skills and opportunities to plan and support each other through death, dying, loss and care.

Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief

The week was initiated by Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief – a charity-led collaboration of more than 1000 individuals and organisations that want Scotland to be a place where people can be open about and plan for death, dying and bereavement.

“If people know a bit more about death and dying, they’re in a better position to take control of their own situation, support others, make plans and have informed decisions about what they’d want when the time comes.” said Rebecca Patterson, Director of Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief.

“Sometimes people worry about things, like what to say to someone who’s been bereaved, or being refused CPR. Perhaps having more information about these could help people worry less.

“There are lots of resources out there that provide information, but sometimes it is difficult to know where to look. We want to make this information easier for people to get at, and we’ll sharing a lot of it this week using the hashtag #DemystifyDeath.”

This will include information on the kinds of preparations people can make if they are worried their health may get worse, for example by making a Power of Attorney and talking to the people close to them about an anticipatory care plan. They will also be sharing tips on how ordinary people can provide informal support to a friend or family member who is caring, dying or grieving, and places people can go for more formal support.

New short films

The week sees the launch of six short films, each aiming to demystify a different aspect of death, dying or bereavement. The ‘60 second shorts’ tackle head-on questions such as ‘What do children want to know about death?’, ‘How can I support a young person who’s bereaved?’ and ‘How might someone’s breathing change when they are dying?’.

Events

As well as an online media campaign, various online events are taking place during the week, for example, Say Something Dundee has plans for a Conversation Café, inviting locals to join in a relaxed, informal discussion around local experiences of death, dying, loss and care. The Compassionate Friends invites people to Say their name, to learn more about how to support parents and siblings who have been bereaved. A community in North Berwick will be welcoming community members to an online Armchair Chat, with a combination of music, discussion and input from Kathryn Mannix, author of the book With the end in mind.

A full list of events is available here: https://www.goodlifedeathgrief.org.uk/blogs/demystifying-death-week-2021/

“We’re often told that death is a ‘taboo’ – something that people don’t want to talk about.’ said Rebecca Patterson, Director of GLGDGG. ‘But surveys show that in Scotland most people are actually fairly comfortable talking about death. Perhaps the right opportunities just don’t present themselves. Demystifying Death week is a chance to open up about death, air these topics and become a bit better at supporting each other through these difficult times.”

12 new projects to improve palliative care in acute hospitals

The SPPC is pleased to be supporting 12 new local projects aimed at improving palliative care in acute hospitals in Scotland. The projects have been funded as part of Building on the Best, a joint project by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care, NHS Boards and Macmillan.

Since March 2020, palliative care teams have been living and working in unprecedented times. New and emerging models of care were implemented at pace, teams reconfigured and practice having to be adapted based on limited and emerging data.

In June, SPPC asked the members of the Scottish Network of Acute Palliative Care (SNAPC) members for their views on priorities for funding following phase 1 of the pandemic. The results showed people wanted the ability to run local projects that could then feed into national workstreams to share learning and build a national profile of acute palliative care services.

They also wanted to focus on the following key areas:

• Anticipatory Care Planning
• Patient and family experience
• Visiting
• Bereavement

Following a grants application process, in October six grants of up to £1000 have been awarded for small scale quality Improvement projects, with six larger grants of up to £10,000 being awarded for larger-scale quality improvement projects. The projects will take place in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Western Isles, NHS Tayside, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Dumfries & Galloway and NHS Lothian.

Small Quality Improvement (QI) Projects (up to £1,000):

ACP

Project Lead: Elizabeth Anderson (NHS GG&C)

Project Aim: To improve the anticipatory care planning and promote good conversations for patients in Inverclyde Royal Hospital.

Patient Belonging Bereavement Bags

Project Lead: Gail Allan (NHS Western Isles)

Project Aim: To improve the experiences of families and carers, following the bereavement of a loved one in hospital, with all in-patient areas using dignified and respectful bags/boxes to return patients valuables and belongings to families and carers.

Guidance At the End of Life (GAEL)

Project Lead: Jackie Wright (NHS GG&C)

Project Aim: To improve the care experience for patients, relatives and carers during the last few days of life in the acute setting.

Senses Trolley

Project Lead: Douglas High/Lynsey Fielden (NHS Forth Valley)

Project Aim: To improve the quality of end of life care delivered on the ward by promoting and enabling a far more person centred experience by using a senses trolley.

Champions for Change

Project Lead: Steven McDonald/Evelyn Patterson (NHS Forth Valley)

Project Aim: To improve equity of palliative care access across mental health services within Forth Valley.

The Final Journey

Project Lead: Patricia O’Gorman (NHS GG&C)

Project Aim: To improve the family and staff experience when transitioning of a deceased patient from the ward to the mortuary.

Large QI Projects (up to £10,000)

ACP

Project Lead: Gail Allan (NHS Western Isles)

Aim: To improve the communication and use of ACP across all clinical services to improve the care experience of people living in the Western Isles.

Mouth Care Matters

Project Lead: Laura Lennox (NHS Dumfries & Galloway)

Aim: To use the Mouth Care Matters programme (HEE, 2019) to improve the mouth care of all in-patients in Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary.

ICU Bereavement

Project Lead: Janine Wilson (NHS Lothian)

Aim: To improve the quality of bereavement care experienced by family members who experience the death of a loved one in critical care/intensive care.

Vascular Palliative EOLC

Project Lead: Dr Deans Buchanan & Dr Graeme Guthrie (NHS Tayside)

Aim: To build an integrated Vascular Surgical and Palliative Medicine approach to the management of people with complex vascular disease.

Shared Decision Making & Treatment Escalation Planning

Project Lead: Dr Shobhan Thakore (NHS Tayside)

Aim: By Jan 2022, 80% of patients (with their families if appropriate) admitted to unscheduled acute care in Tayside with palliative or end of life care needs will be involved in decisions regarding their care using a structured Treatment Escalation Plan.

Palliative Care for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Project Lead: Dr Andrew Goudie (NHS Tayside)

Aim: To improve the palliative care delivery for patients hospitalised with an acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Winner of the Derek Doyle Poster Prize announced

Each year, the Derek Doyle Poster Prize is awarded to the poster that gets the most public votes in the SPPC poster exhibition.

As many people will know Derek was a key figure in Scotland, the UK and globally in the development of palliative care – instrumental in establishing palliative medicine as a speciality, first chair of the Association for Palliative Medicine, first Vice-Chairman of the European Association for Palliative Care and a founding member of the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care.

This years winners were:

1st place: Parlez-vous prognostic indicators? How health and social care occupational therapists in Fife are driving integrated system-wide change in palliative care services by Claire Howie and Alison Watt, NHS Fife/ Fife HSCP

2^nd place: Your service, your way: Breaking down barriers and developing reciprocal links between the hospice and multiple ethnic minority communities in Govanhill, Glasgow using Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) by Christina Inglis and Janette McGarvey, Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice

3^rd place: Anticipatory Care Planning in care and nursing homes in Inverclyde by David Lynch, Ardgowan Hospice.