Palliative Care work underway at HIS

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) has made a number of appointments to its Living Well in Communities team to take forward improvement work relating to palliative care:

• Michelle Church, Palliative Care Improvement Advisor
• Paul Baughan, Medical National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care
• Sandra Campbell, Nursing National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care
• Julie Marshall will be joining soon as Palliative Care Social Services Advisor

More information about this work is available here: ihub living well in communities.

Learning and Development Framework published

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) have published ‘Enriching and Improving Experience. Palliative and End of Life Care: A framework to support the learning and development needs of the health and social services workforce in Scotland’. The framework was developed to meet Commitment 3 of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care in Scotland.

Strategic Framework for Action

The SPPC compiles periodic updates relating to implementation of the SFA and these are available on the SPPC website. The Scottish Government website relating to implementation of the SFA is here: weblink.

Consultation on Safe and Effective Staffing in Health and Social Care

The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on proposals to introduce legislation that would require organisations providing health and social care to:

• Apply nationally agreed, evidenced based workload and workforce planning methodologies and tools.
• Ensure that key principles, notably consideration of professional judgement, local context and quality measures, underpin workload and workforce planning and inform staffing decisions.
• Monitor and report on how they have done this and provide assurance regarding safe and effective staffing.

The consultation closes on 5 July 2017.

National Care Framework for Huntington’s Disease.

A National Care Framework for Huntington’s Disease has been published

Launch of Hospice UK heart failure report

Hospice UK have published Heart Failure and Hospice Care, a guide for those providing and commissioning hospice services. The publication aims to raise awareness of the need for a ‘hospice-enabled’ approach to heart failure, and to suggest ways to engage with this issue.

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Perinatal Pathway for Babies with Palliative Care Needs

Together for Short Lives has launched the latest in a suite of care pathways - the Perinatal Pathway for Babies with Palliative Care Needs. This is a revised edition of the Neonatal Pathway which was first published in 2009. The dedicated care pathway starts from the point of recognition that a baby has a life-threatening condition and may not survive for long after birth and through their neonatal period. The pathway is designed to ensure families have more choice in their babies care and the best memories of their baby, no matter how short their life may be.

Palliative care from diagnosis to death: a short film
Scott Murray and colleagues have produced a 4-minute video summarising the rationale for for early palliative care. The film accompanies a recent analysis in the BMJ entitled Palliative care from diagnosis to death. (BMJ 2017;356:j878)

Launch of the National ACP documents and the ACP app

The new National ACP documentation and ACP app for Scotland will be launched on 7^th June.

Tending the body of a loved one at home

Pushing up the Daisies has released a series of films of people sharing personal stories about tending the body of their loved one at home after death - some who have died at home, some in a hospital or care home. They are running a course on this subject on 1 October in Glasgow (details here), and also have funding to run a number of courses on “Introduction to Tending a Body at Home after Death”.

Call for posters: SPPC Conference 2017

Are you involved in an interesting project or in an area of work that you would like to discuss with or show to others in Scotland with an interest in palliative care? Why not apply to display a poster of your work at this year's SPPC Annual Conference? The deadline for proposals is Monday 21 August 2017.

Sharing Current Scottish Practice

The SPPC Annual Conference in 2016 featured 36 poster displays, sharing work and research underway across Scotland. Each month, this blog focuses on the content of a few of these posters. This month, we focus on:

• Highland hospice - Reaching Out
• How can a palliative care outcome measure be used in an acute care setting? An audit of the Integrated Palliative Outcome Scale (IPOS) in a Scottish teaching hospital
• How do palliative care specialists add value?
• Informing practice: NHSScotland Palliative Care Guidelines 2016 Survey Results
• Lothian Care Assistant Development Programme - An education initiative

The SPPC Sharing Current Scottish Practice blog provides an opportunity for people to share examples of current Scottish palliative care practice that might be of interest to the palliative care community more widely. If you know of work underway that might be relevant for sharing on our website, please get in touch

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Call for posters: SPPC Conference 2017

Are you involved in an interesting project or in an area of work that you would like to discuss with or show to others in Scotland with an interest in palliative care? Why not apply to display a poster of your work at this year's SPPC Annual Conference? The deadline for proposals is Monday 21 August 2017.

Marie Curie Research Grants 2017

Marie Curie, in partnership with Chief Scientist Office (CSO) in Scotland, the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association and The Brain Tumour Charity, is making over £1.5 million available this year through the Marie Curie Research Grants Scheme. The deadline for outline applications is 7 July 2017.

Palliative care from diagnosis to death

Scott Murray and colleagues have published an evidence-based rationale for early palliative care based on the fact that the last stage of life can start much earlier for some people than others and that dying is a four-dimensional experience with dynamic changes in all dimensions of need. The article is accompanied by a four-minute film.

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Care Opinion in palliative and end of life care: apply to join the programme

Care Opinion is working in partnership with Hospice UK to launch a Scottish Government funded programme designed to test the value of near real-time online patient/family feedback in the context of palliative and end of life care. The programme will take place in 10 hospital, hospice or community settings, over a period of two years. The application deadline is 5pm on 28 July 2017. Full details relating to this programme and how to apply to be a part of it are available here: Care Opinion Blog.

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SPPC Annual Conference – Speakers Announced!

The theme for this year’s Annual Conferences will be Making the best of hard times, and we’re delighted to be able to announce a fantastic line-up of speakers, with further additions to follow:

• Death and dying at the frontiers of medical possibility, Nazir Lone, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Critical Care, University of Edinburgh, Consultant in Critical Care, NHS Lothian
• Speaking Up or Acting Out? On Advocacy, Marginalisation and Ethical Practice, Deborah Bowman, Professor of Medical Ethics and Law, St Georges University of London
• Better Outcomes and Lower Costs?, Jo Bowden, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, NHS Fife; Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
• How is it for you? Exploring Realities and Practicalities Where Integration Meets Palliative Care, Diana Hekerem, Head of Strategic Commissioning Support at Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Sharing Knowledge, Sharing the Load, Dr Jeremy Keen, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Highland Hospice

Delegates will also have the opportunity to choose from a variety of practical workshops, and there will be an extensive poster display and opportunities for networking. The conference will take place on Wednesday 20th September 2017 at Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh. More information and booking is available here: weblink.

To Absent Friends Community Supper in Edinburgh

The To Absent Friends Supper is a modern take on a timeless concept - getting together over food to remember people who have died. This November, the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care invites you to a community To Absent Friends Supper in Edinburgh. Share stories over a simple three course meal. The evening will be interspersed with entertainment from local artists, reflecting on loss through music, poetry and storytelling. 7pm, Tuesday 7 November, Broughton St Mary's Parish Church, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink

Prize winning abstract at EAPC 2017

SPPC staff were pleased to be awarded a prize for ‘1 of 3 best abstracts’ in the Bereavement Category at this year’s European Association of Palliative Care World Congress in Madrid. The abstract, entitled Is Scotland ready to create its own day of the dead?, explored learning from the To Absent Friends festival. The full abstract, and other abstracts from EAPC 2017 can be viewed here (p.320, P01-058): EAPC 2017 abstract book

Refresh of the SPPC website

The SPPC website has recently been refreshed to reflect the vision, language and strategic priorities set out within our newly published 3-year strategy. We have also simplified the site and made it easier to navigate. Our website hosts information about palliative care events and services in Scotland – if there is information on our website about your service that requires updating, please get in touch.

Death on the Fringe 2017

Death on the Fringe returns to Edinburgh this August, with a fantastic line-up:

• Pushing up the Daisies Presents… Is This It? With Poet and Storyteller, Margot Henderson. A one-woman show that looks death in the face and tells it like it is, straight from the corpse’s mouth
• Rebel Rebel – how Bowie shone a spotlight on palliative and end of life careA lecture by Mark Taubert, Clinical Director and Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine at Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff.
• Doctors, dying and death since the nineteenth century Prof David Clark in conversation with Mark Hazelwood, discussing David’s new book on the history of palliative medicine – To Comfort Always.

For more information and to book tickets, check out the Death on the Fringe website.

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Thanks to all those who took part to make Death Awareness Week Scotland a success. A great range of events took place, and during the week the SPPC launched the following new resources...

5 new blogs

We were pleased to publish contributions from a fantastic variety of Death Awareness Week bloggers. Check out their blogs below:

• In her blog Living and dying with the “unknown unknowns”,Tanith Muller of Parkinson UK discusses reasons why a change of culture is needed to support people living with progressive conditions to live well and prepare for declining health.
• In her blog, Scottish Care’s Katharine Ross discusses the enormous contribution made by front line support workers employed in care homes and care at home organisations to the delivery of palliative and end of life care for older people.
• In her blog, Shopping and Mopping? Think again! Jane Perry discusses palliative and end of life care from her perspective as Operations Director for Bluebird Care, a provider of private care at home.
• Dr Juliet Spiller discusses 'Realistic Medicine', advance care planning, and the how to achieve a real shared understanding of the risk / benefit balance that lies in every treatment and care decision.
• Alison Bunce talks about Compassionate Inverclyde, a programme aiming to enable and empower individuals and communities to help and support each other at times of increased health need, at end of life and in bereavement.

Launch of new Advance Care Planning resource

We have launched a brand new resource - a mini-advance care planning prompt... in the form of a small origami game. The new resource encourages people to 'plan your own future', and includes prompts and information relating to legal, medical, practical and personal aspects of advance care planning. For more information, and to download the resource for free, check out the website: Origami ACP

It Takes a Village exhbition

Last Awareness Week saw the launch of It Takes a Village, a powerful and challenging series of portraits and personal stories exploring the idea that as people’s health deteriorates, care and support comes in many guises. This Awareness Week, we are pleased to have worked again with artist Colin Gray to add two more portraits to the series: Joanne, Home Carer, and Nazir, Critical Care Doctor. The new portraits were premiered at the Scottish Care Care Conference on Friday 12th May and are available to view online.

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Film: what a difference good care makes

What a Difference Good Care Makes is a short film commissioned by Scottish Care, which highlights the work of Care at Home services. Directed by Michael Rea, the film features people in receipt of care services and their families, as well as those providing the care.

Carers UK Survey

Carers UK is currently running the 'State of Caring Survey', and is planning to use the results to help them show the reality of what it means to care for a family member or friend. For more information, or to complete the survey, check out their website: Carers UK Survey

Primary Care - People as Partners

The Health and Social Care Alliance (the ALLIANCE) has developed a new publication to highlight the importance of working collectively to promote the whole-system transformation needed to improve the interactions and conversations between people and practitioners in primary care.

Patient Opinion changes name to Care Opinion

Patient Opinion and Care Opinion have merged to become one integrated site: Care Opinion

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In each edition of Update we try to end with something a little bit thought-provoking or different. This week, did existential angst and death anxiety have role to play in the rise of Donald Trump? Sheldon Solomon explores...

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7th International Conference on Ageing and Spirituality

4-7 June 2017, Chicago. More information is available here: weblink.

Care Homes Conference for ALL care home staff

Organised by the University of Edinburgh. 6 June 2017. More information is available here: weblink.

The vision for a teaching/research-based Care Home

Organised by the University of Edinburgh. 7 June 2017, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink

Death at the Margins of the State

Organised by the Centre for Death and Society. 9-10 June, Bath. More information is available here: weblink

Care of Dying Adults in the last days of life: Implementing the 2017 NICE National Quality Standard

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 12 June 2017, London. More information is available here: weblink.

End of life issues in hospitals: Comparing Scotland, Denmark and New Zealand

21 June 2017, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Tayside Palliative Care National Conference 2017

22 June 2017, Dundee. More information is available here: weblink.

Combining Medical Care and Community Development

29 June, Frome. More information is available here: weblink.

Transforming End of Life Care in Acute Hospitals

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 12 July 2017, Manchester. More information is available here: weblink.

Rebel Rebel – how Bowie shone a spotlight on palliative and end of life care

A lecture by Mark Taubert, Clinical Director and Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine at Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff. Thursday 17th August, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Pushing up the Daisies Presents… Is This It?

With Poet and Storyteller, Margot Henderson. A one-woman show that looks death in the face and tells it like it is, straight from the corpse’s mouth. Friday 18th August, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Doctors, dying and death since the nineteenth century

Prof David Clark in conversation with Mark Hazelwood, discussing David’s new book on the history of palliative medicine – To Comfort Always. Thursday 24th August, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

5th International Public Health & Palliative Care Conference

17-20 September 2017, Ottawa, Canada. More information is available here: weblink.

New Directions in Palliative Medicine: Finding Strength: Challenges and Opportunities for Patients with Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders.

Organised by Strathcarron Hospice. 28 & 29 September 2017, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Key Aspects of After Death Body Care

Organised by Pushing up the Daisies. 1 October 2017, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

A Master Class on Complicated Grief

A 2-day master class with Professor Katherine Shear, Director of the Centre for Complicated Grief in New York, and Professor of Psychiatry in Social Work at Columbia University, 4 & 5 October, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Conference: People who care: relationships at the end of life

Organised by Marie Curie and the Palliative Care Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. 6 October, London. More information is available here: weblink

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Marking 40 Years of Palliative Care

Organised by St Columba’s Hospice. 27 October 2017, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

To Absent Friends Community Supper

Organised by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care. 7 November, Edinburgh. A chance to share stories and memories of people who have died, with food and entertainment. More information is available here: weblink

Courses offered by St Columba’s Hospice

MSc in Palliative Care: Shadows & Horizons: Advancing Palliative Care Practice

Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care: Caring for the Patient & Family in Palliative Care

More information is available on the St Columba’s Hospice website.

Courses offered by St Margaret of Scotland Hospice

For more information about any of the courses below, please contact Margaret Donnelly, Programme Co-ordinator, St Margaret of Scotland Hospice, tel 0141 435 7017.

Introduction to Palliative Care

Starts 16 August 2017

Loss, Grief & Bereavement

Starts 13 September 2017

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