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Next week (14-20 May) is Good Death Week in Scotland (Dying Matters week in England & Wales), a chance to promote the positives of living in a society where people can be open about dying, death and bereavement. Events are taking place across Scotland to mark the occasion, and at SPPC we have lined up a few Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief activities for the week...

Mon 14^th, 10am How Will You Die? quiz launched

This light-hearted online quiz aims to get people thinking about issues around death. Through a series of questions, some silly, some serious, it “predicts” what your death might be and tells you which famous people have died that way. It then invites people to the GLGDGG website to find out more. Watch out for the quiz on our social media accounts on Monday, and please feel free to share widely.

Thu 17^th, 11.30am - 12.30pm Twitter Chat

Join GLGDGG and the Health and Social Care Academy for a Twitter chat on what a good death looks like. Prompt questions will be posed to get the conversation going but drop in when you like or stay the whole hour. Follow #GoodDeathWeek to join in.

Fri 18^th, 10am Award Winners announced

The Contribution to Awareness About Death Award was inaugurated in 2016 to recognise individual or group contributions towards promoting more open and supportive attitudes to death and bereavement in Scotland. Five nominees have been made for this year’s award and the winner, selected by an international panel of judges, will be announced on Friday 19th. Please share and celebrate their work.

Daily Expert blogs

Each day, GLGDGG will publish a new guest blog on how a good death relates to the place you die, whether that be home, hospital, hospice or care home. Please help us by reading and sharing.

All week: information, support and resources

The GLGDGG website has lots of resources to help engage people in discussions relating to planning ahead, including an origami game, conversation menus, It Takes A Village Exhibition, some short films and an online Before I Die Wall. It also provides practical information for people wishing to plan ahead, or learn more about what happens when someone is dying.

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Strategic Commissioning Guidance

The Scottish Government has published Strategic Commissioning of Palliative and End of Life Care by Integration Authorities, an advice note to support existing statutory guidance on strategic commissioning plans and localities guidance.

Social Security System: Terminal Illness definition

The Scottish Parliament has voted to change the definition of a terminal illness for the purpose of claiming benefits. Previously, the definition of a terminal illness was that "a person is 'terminally ill' at any time if at that time the person suffers from a progressive disease and the person’s death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within 6 months”. The new system will see someone defined as terminally ill if “it is the clinical judgement of a registered medical practitioner that the individual has a progressive disease that can reasonably be expected to cause the individual’s death”.

It is expected that work to develop guidance and regulations to accompany the definition will be led by Dr Catherine Calderwood, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland. Jeane Freeman, Minister for Social Security, has outlined some thoughts on terminal illness in relation to the new social security system in this blog.

Strategic Framework for Action

The SPPC has compiled an update on progress relating to delivery of the ten commitments set out within the Scottish Government’s Strategic Framework for Action. The SPPC tries to make these updates as accurate, comprehensive and current as possible. Please let us know if you spot any inaccuracies or are aware of other information which could usefully and appropriately be shared.

CMO Annual Report: Practising Realistic Medicine

Catherine Calderwood, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, has published her annual report Practising Realistic Medicine. A summary version of the report is also available.

Health promoting health service

The Scottish Government has published a letter setting out the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland’s priorities for the Health Promoting Health Service for 2018 and beyond.

Health and Care Experience Survey

The Scottish Government has published results of the Health and Care Experience Survey 2017/18. The survey asked about people’s experiences of accessing and using their GP practice and other local healthcare services; receiving care, support and help with everyday living; and caring responsibilities.

New report on third and independent sector engagement in integration

The ALLIANCE, SCVO and CPPS have published a paper focusing on third and independent sector engagement in health and social care integration. The purpose of the paper is to assess the level and quality of engagement in order to ensure full use is made of the expertise and contributions of the third and independent sectors.

New public health reform website

A new website has been established which provides information about public health reform in Scotland.

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Carers Act Resources

The Coalition of Carers in Scotland has published a set of leaflets for carers that explains what carers can expect under the new Carers Act. The four leaflets cover emergency planning, adult carer support plans, short breaks, and involving carers in the hospital discharge of the person they care for.

Online course on palliative care and Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s UK and the Open University have produced an online course covering the principles of palliative and end of life care and how these can be applied in Parkinson's. It has been designed for professionals, such as Parkinson's specialist nurses and other clinicians, who work as part of the specialist team during the palliative and end of life phases.

Enhanced palliative care for generalists course

Macmillan is funding the development of an Enhanced Palliative Care for Generalists course, an educational program to provide non-specialists, in both Primary and Secondary care, with enhanced training in practical Palliative Care. For further information or if you are interested in being involved with the steering group, writing parts of the manual, or developing the interactive course please email or phone Neil Pryde 07770574467.

Train the trainers course for Care Homes

Balhousie Care Group and Macmillan Cancer Support have successfully run a 4-day Palliative Care Train the Trainer course. More information about the course is available in this blog.

Poster abstracts of the month

The SPPC Annual Conference in 2017 featured 46 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 8 of these:

• Anticipatory Care Plans and Advanced Care Plans in Non-Malignant Palliative Care
• Culture Sharing: Death and dying in North India – learning from a mentorship visit to a rural palliative care team in North India
• Discontinuing non-essential interventions at the end of life – a split site, dual discipline quality improvement project
• Do Hospital Anticipatory Care Plans improve patient care? An evaluation of end of life care in a District General Hospital
• Do cloth bereavement bags make a difference when handing back patients’ belongings to bereaved relatives/ carers compared to the current plastic bags within the acute hospitals across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde?
• End of life care in hospital - are we getting it right?
• End of life care: service evaluation in a hospice in-patient unit
• End-stage chronic liver disease: a look at the last year of life

A full list of posters from the 2017 SPPC Annual Conference is available here: Poster displays 2017.

Sharing your practice

The SPPC hosts a 'sharing current Scottish practice' blog as a platform 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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Older people’s experiences of bereavement

Independent Age has published Good Grief, Older People’s Experiences of Partner Bereavement. The report brings together what is already known about older people’s experiences of bereavement along with new research centred on older people whose partners have died.

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Scottish Palliative Care Research Forum

The next meeting of the Scottish Palliative Care Research Forum will take place on 16 May in Edinburgh. More information and booking is available here: Eventbrite

New research study: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

A team of researchers at the University of Chester and the University of Edinburgh have been awarded a £34,000 grant by Macmillan for a collaborative project, which will be run in partnership with Marie Curie. The funding will enable Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based psychological therapy sessions to be delivered to people with cancer who are transitioning into specialist palliative care services.

Annals of Palliative Medicine: Public Health Approaches to Palliative Care

The latest edition of Annals of Palliative Medicine focuses on public health approaches to palliative care.

Survey on palliative care and dementia

A survey of healthcare professionals and researchers is being undertaken to find out:

• What they feel is most important in a model of palliative care for people with dementia living in the community?
• What existing Dementia Palliative Care services are there?

The survey takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

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Launch of new report: A Road Less Lonely

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief have published A Road Less Lonely, a report looking at how to encourage more supportive attitudes and behaviours relating to death, dying and bereavement in Scotland.

SPPC response to loneliness and isolation consultation

The SPPC has submitted a response to the Scottish Government's consultation A Connected Scotland: Tackling social isolation and loneliness and building stronger social connections.

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Churchill Fellowships

Churchill Fellowships are now open for applications, including a dedicated award category for topics in ‘Healthcare: innovations for the twenty-first century’. They are seeking applications for projects that will make a positive contribution in the areas of public and community health, clinical practice, technology and innovation, teaching and training. There is a dedicated award category for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals.

Care and Support Planning & GMS Contract

The House of Care Programme has produced two documents detailing how Care and Support Planning can be a key enabler of the new General Medical Services Contract.

Special Interest Group on Palliative and End of Life Care

The International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) has created a Special Interest Group (SIG) on Palliative and End of Life Care. The aims of the SIG are to facilitate collaboration across disciplines and across countries to enhance our understanding, adoption and evaluation of palliative and end of life care as a key component of people centred integrated care.

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In each edition of Update we try to end with something a little bit thought-provoking or different...

The Changing Face of Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care, is a recently published book, edited by Ros Scott and Steven Howlett. The book gives an overview of palliative care currently, charts the history and development of volunteering in a number of different countries, considers the political and legislative influences and how volunteering is changing in these countries.

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SPPC Annual Conference 2018

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference will take place on Wednesday 28 November 2018 at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Good Death Week

Good Death Week will take place across Scotland from 14-20 May 2018. It is an opportunity for individuals and organisations to promote the positives of living in a society where people can be open about dying, death and bereavement. More information is available here: Good Death Week

Patient and Public Involvement Event

Organised by the University of Glasgow. Aimed at adults with a life-limiting condition and carers with experience of caring for someone with a life-limiting illness. 15 May, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Scottish Palliative Care Research Forum

16 May 2018, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Decision Making and Mental Capacity Implementing the 2018 NICE Guidance

Organised by HC-UK Conferences. 18 May 2018, London. More information is available here: weblink.

ACA Annual Conference and Exhibition 2018

Organised by the Association for Continence Advice (ACA) 21 & 22 May 2018, Bournemouth. More information is available here: weblink.

Paediatric Continence Workshop

Organised by the Association for Continence Advice (ACA). 21 May 2018, Bournemouth. More information is available here: weblink.

Care Home Continence Workshop

Organised by the Association for Continence Advice (ACA) 22 May 2018, Bournemouth. More information is available here: weblink.

Creating singing groups for people with dementia

Led by Diana Kerr, organised by Faith in Older People. 24 May 2018, Perth. For more information or to book a place email Faith in Older People.

Care of Dying Adults in the last days of life: Improving Care and ensuring adherence to the NICE National Quality Standard

Organised by HC-UK Conferences, 25 May 2018, London. More information is available here: weblink.

Action: The 2nd Health and Social Care Integration event

Organised by the ALLIANCE. 4 June, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Dementia Awareness Week

4-10 June 2018. More information is available here: weblink.

Alzheimer Scotland Conference 2018

8 June 2018, Edinburgh. More details are available here: weblink.

Caldicott Guardian event: information sharing in small-scale organisations

8 June, Leeds. Organised by UK Caldicott Guardian Council. More information is available here: weblink.

Improving End of Life for People with Dementia

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 15 June 2018, London. More information is available here: weblink.

Caldicott Principles & Information Sharing in End of Life Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 25 June 2018, London. More information is available here: weblink.

Effective Non-Medical Prescribing in End of Life Care

Organised by Health Care Conference UK. 16 July 2018, London. More information is available here: weblink.

Open information session at the Marie Curie Hospice, Edinburgh

All are welcome to visit the Marie Curie Hospice, Edinburgh, to learn more about the services we offer and meet some of our Clinical Team. Afternoon sessions are from 2pm to 4pm and are on the following dates in 2018: 17^th July, 21^st September and 8^th November For further information and to book a place, please contact Barbara McRobbie on 0131 470 2201

HOLD THE DATE – Conference on Palliative Care in Scotland’s Prisons

10 September 2018. With the support of Macmillan, Scottish Prison Service, NHS Scotland & SPPC. Details to follow.

Oncology: Challenges and changing outcomes

21 September 2018, Organised by RCPE. More information is available here: weblink.

Challenge or Conform: Finding Consensus in an Evolving Specialty

Organised by Strathcarron Hospice. 27 and 28 September 2018, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Save the date: The Malcolm Goldsmith Lecture 2018: Rev Canon Dr Joseph John Morrow

Organised by Faith in Older People, 8 November 2018.

St Margaret of Scotland Hospice courses

A full list of courses delivered by St Margaret of Scotland Hospice is available on their website.

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