Social Isolation and Loneliness Strategy.

The Scottish Government has published A Connected Scotland, a strategy for tackling social isolation and loneliness and building stronger social connections. The strategy includes references to bereavement as a significant event relating to loneliness and a commitment to research to understand such key life stages and consider how to best support those affected.

Consultation on timescales for carer support plans

The Scottish Government is undertaking a consultation to inform regulations that will set prioritised time limits for the preparation of adult carer support plans and young carer statements for carers of people who are terminally ill. The consultation closes on 12 April 2019.

Advanced Dementia Care Report

Alzheimer Scotland have published Delivering Fair Dementia Care for people with Advanced Dementia. The report urges a rethink in the way that Scotland delivers care and treatment for people with advanced dementia.

Back to top

Compassionate Inverclyde

An evaluation of Compassionate Inverclyde has been published.

Palliative Care Formulary

The online Palliative Care Formulary (PCF) is now available on the MedicinesComplete platform.

Sharing current Scottish Practice

Each month our blog focus on a few of the posters displayed at previous SPPC Annual Conferences. This month we look at five posters from the 2017 conference...

• The Inside Out Hospice Approach
• The WoW Consultation
• Using poetry to describe the essence of person-centred engagement in palliative care
• Using the Gold Standard Framework "trigger questions" to improve medical inpatient anticipatory care planning
• Working together to enable person-centred palliative and end of life care

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

Back to top

Empowering Better End of Life Dementia Care Programme

£4.7m has been awarded to researchers at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, UCL, and the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, King’s College London. The programme grant called Empowering Better End of Life Dementia Care Programme (EMBED-Care) aims to create new ways of supporting patients with advanced dementia, where they live and receive care.

Back to top

Unleashing Compassion Conference

A conference exploring how to encourage open and supportive attitudes and behaviours relating to death, dying and bereavement in Scotland. Building on last year's sell-out event, the Unleashing Compassion conference is for people and organisations who want to get involved in practical work to build compassion in their own community, with a particular focus on improving people's experiences of deteriorating health, death, dying and bereavement. The conference will take place on Thursday 2nd May 2019 at Renfield St Stephen Centre, Glasgow. Booking details and more information are available here: Unleashing Compassion Conference

Presentations available from SPPC Annual Conference 2018

Last year's Annual Conference 2018 took place on 28th November in the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh. Speaker PowerPoint slides and poster presentations are now available to view on our website.

Save the date – SPPC Annual Conference 2019

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference will take place on Wednesday 18 September 2019 at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. More details to follow.

New community development project to support "compassionate communities" in Scotland

SPPC is embarking on a new project, funded by Macmillan Cancer Support. Taking a community development approach, the project aims to support communities who are interested in taking local action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care.

Good Death Week, 13 – 19 May

Good Death Week is taking place again this year in May. It’s an opportunity to promote the positives of living in a society where people can be open about death, dying and bereavement. Organisations and individuals are encouraged to hold events to mark the occasion, as well as make a noise over social media. SPPC will be leading the way with their own programme of activity, and more information will be available soon.

If you'd like to do something practical at your workplace, community group or among friends and family, we have prepared a variety of resources that can be used during Good Death Week, including films, leaflets, conversation menus, an ACP origami game, online resources and an art exhibition.

Back to top

New guidance on carers and confidentiality

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland has released a new good practice guide to help carers, families, and practitioners understand consent, confidentiality, and sharing of information for people with mental illness, dementia, learning disability, or other related conditions.

The Zubairi Report

Voluntary Health Scotland (VHS) has published The Zubairi Report. The Report aims to highlight perspectives and voices on loneliness and social isolation which are not often heard and use these to produce a clear and informed understanding of what loneliness and social isolation is, what causes it, why for some it becomes chronic and what can be done at an individual, societal and governmental level to tackle it. The report highlights some of the associations between death, dying and bereavement and loneliness/social isolation.

A Rights Blether

The Health and Social Care Academy and partners have published A Rights Blether, exploring how human rights can be supported in care homes.

In the media

eHospice: New Study by Marie Curie and RCGP calls for improvements on out of hours palliative care.

The National: ‘Good death’ group heralds Billy Connolly’s end-of-life attitude

The Scotsman: Care Homes in Scotland struggling to recruit staff

Back to top

In each edition of Update we try to end with something a little bit different or thought-provoking. The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death is exploring how to make healthcare’s relationship with death healthier, and are seeking comments and input. Read more here… The Lance Commission on the Value of Death.

Back to top

Unleashing Compassion Conference

Organised by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief. 2 May 2019, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Save the date: Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference 2019

18 September 2019, Edinburgh. More details to follow.

Transforming Loss in Scotland Conference

Organised by Sands, Royal College of Midwives and Bliss. 20 February 2019, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

No more deathly silences

Organised by Stephanie Hutchinson. 26 February 2019, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Faith to Faith: coping with death and dying

Organised by Interfaith Glasgow and St Mungo's Museum. 10 February 2019, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Improving End of Life Care for People with Dementia

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 11 March 2019, London. More information is available here: weblink.

A Practical Guide to Effective Non-Medical Prescribing for Pain

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 18 March 2019, London. More information is available here: weblink.

Children and young people – loss, death and grief

Organised by Child Bereavement UK. 3 April 2019, Dumfries. More information is available here: weblink.

Effective Non-Medical Prescribing in End of Life Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 5 April 2019, London. More information is available here: weblink.

Compassion in Practice

Organised by Tayside Palliative and End of Life Care MCN. 1 May 2019, Dundee. More details will be available soon, in the meantime, please email if you would like to get in touch with the TayPEOLC MCN team.

Working with bereaved teenagers

Organised by Child Bereavement UK. 3 May 2019, Stirlingshire. More information is available here: weblink.

Alzheimer Scotland Annual Conference

3 June 2019, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Continence: A Growing Challenge

Organised by the Association for Continence Advice. 10 & 11 June 2019, Harrogate. More information is available here: weblink.

Compassionate Communities in Action: Reclaiming ageing, dying and grieving.

6th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference. 13-16 October, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. More information is available here: weblink.

St Margaret of Scotland Hospice courses

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

Back to top