Parliamentary Questions

Mary Fee MSP has submitted parliamentary questions to the Scottish Government, relating to the national coordinator for child bereavement services, including details on timescales for the appointment of a national coordinator and details of how the government plans to distribute funds to support the coordinator's work. Answers are expected on 2nd April.

Implementing Integrated Cardiac Supportive Palliative Care across Scotland

Dr David Murdoch (Scottish Government Heart Disease Lead Clinician and Chair, National Advisory Committee on Heart Disease) has sent a letter to all NHS Board Medical Directors. The letter advises that, the Heart Failure Palliative Care implementation programme has been designed following on from the "Caring Together Programme". Funded by the British Heart Foundation and the Scottish Government, a dedicated implementation team, with the support of the National Heart Failure Hub, will be mobilised to share the “Caring Together Core Components” of the heart failure and palliative care programme across Scotland. The implementation team will be running a series of discussion and redesign events throughout 2019. All health boards will be requested to participate in these events and to identify local champions to drive forward this work.

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Advance Care Planning Toolkit

The iHUB at Healthcare Improvement Scotland has shared new examples of how their ACP toolkit is used to support people to make informed choices about future care needs:

• a new video about how thinking ahead with ACP is used in a care home in East Ayrshire.
• a new blog post about ACP in general practice.
• the new ACP document for babies, children and young people.

ReSPECT

HIS Palliative Care Bulletin

Healthcare Improvement Scotland publishes a monthly bulletin designed to help people keep up to date with publications across the range of topics covered by the Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines. The bulletins include articles from key journals plus reports and research publications from a range of organisations.

Sharing current Scottish Practice

Each month our blog focuses on a few of the posters displayed at previous SPPC Annual Conferences. This month we look at six posters from the 2018 conference...

• Building on the Best – Improving palliative and end of life care in acute hospitals in Scotland
• Catastrophic Bleed Box - a practical resource within an acute setting?
• Collaborative working between renal and palliative care: The impact of an integrated service on symptom burden, advanced care planning and place of death for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease managed without dialysis.
• Drug therapy for delirium in terminally ill adults: A Cochrane review
• End of Life Care is not Black and White
• Enhanced Palliative Care for Generalists

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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Should palliative care be rebranded?

This editorial by Kirsty Boyd, Sebastien Moine, Scott A Murray, Deborah Bowman and Nicole Brun explores whether or not changing the terminology is an essential part of changing negative perceptions around palliative care.

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Job Vacancy: Programme Manager (Building on the Best)

Salary £35,915 – £43,436 depending on skills & experience . Full time. Fixed Term 3 years.

SPPC has been funded by Macmillan Cancer Support for a second phase of the Building on the Best Programme. The programme will work across Scotland to improve care in hospitals towards the end of life. We are currently seeking a Programme Manager to work on the programme. More information is available here: Programme Manager (Building on the Best)

New member of staff

We're pleased to announce that Caroline Gibb will be joining the SPPC team from 8th April 2019. A community-development practitioner by background, Caroline will be leading work on our new project to support "compassionate communities" in Scotland. Funded by Macmillan Cancer Support, the project aims to support communities who are interested in taking local action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care. More information about the project, including how to get involved, will be announced at the Unleashing Compassion conference on 2nd May in Glasgow.

Unleashing Compassion Conference

Book now to attend this major national conference exploring how to encourage open and supportive attitudes and behaviours relating to death, dying and bereavement in Scotland. The conference is for anyone who wants to get involved in practical work to build compassion in their own community.

Keynote Speaker: Dame Barbara Monroe

Drawing on 40 years experience as a social worker, and 14 years as Chief Executive of St Christopher’s Hospice, Barbara will provide a thought-provoking exploration of some of the current issues and challenges facing those wishing to ‘unleash’ the compassion within themselves and their communities.

Launch of new Scottish initiatives

The conference sees the launch of a new Compassionate Communities Toolkit - a collection of resources to provide ideas and inspiration to those wishing to make their own community more compassionate relating to death, dying and bereavement. The conference will also mark the beginning of the new Connecting Compassion Project: A community development project aiming to support communities who are interested in taking local action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care.

Plenary and breakout sessions

There will be plenary and breakout sessions on a range of subjects, including Compassionate Inverclyde; Pushing up the Daises; Food Train; Shifting perspectives: Community Development vs Healthcare models; Helping Hands; Threshold Choirs; End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone; Bereavement-friendly workplaces.

Tickets cost £40 - find out more and get tickets here.

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.

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.

Small grants available

We are running a small grants scheme to support people to participate in Good Death Week, which takes place across Scotland from 13 - 19 May 2019. The grants (of up to £50) can be used for any event that furthers the aims of:

• Raising public awareness of ways of dealing with death, dying and bereavement
• Promoting community involvement in death, dying and bereavement

More information about Good Death Week and the small grants scheme is available on our website. If you'd like to apply for a small grant, please download and complete this form and e-mail Robert by 31 March 2019.

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RCP position on Assisted Dying

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has adopted a neutral position on assisted dying following a survey of its UK fellows and members.

New Sue Ryder report

Sue Ryder has published A Better Grief, a report exploring experiences of death and bereavement in the UK. The report was the subject of a parliamentary question from Johann Lamont MSP on 21st March.

In the media

BBC News: Epilepsy expert issues warning over vital medication

Edinburgh Evening News: Edinburgh palliative care patients try out virtual reality ‘trips’ in Scotland first

The Herald: Lack of palliative care for one in four terminally ill Scots piling pressure on families.

ITV News: Introduce bereavement first aiders in workplace employers urged.

The Scotsman: Someone’s life tells its own story – and we’re ready to listen at the end

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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.

Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference 2019

18 September 2019, Edinburgh. More details to follow.

Don't judge a book by its cover

Organised by Marie Curie. 2 April 2019, Edinburgh. 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.

Symptom Assessment & Management Course

Organised by St Margaret of Scotland Hospice. A 6 part course running 4th, 11th, 18th & 25th April and 2nd & 9th May 2019. Contact Margaret Donnelly for more information and to book.

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.

Care at Home and Housing Support Conference

Organised by Scottish Care. 17 May 2019, Glasgow. 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.

Paediatric Continence Workshop

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

Care Home and Social Care in the Community Continence Workshop

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

Community Palliative Care; Wholly Holistic, Or More To Do?

Organised by NHS Tayside. 29 August 2019, Dundee. Further details to follow. To book a place contact Irene Thompson -Tel: 01382 740074 ext 71428.

British Lymphology Society Conference

7th & 8th October, Staffordshire. 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.

National Care Home Conference, Exhibition & Awards 18

Organised by Scottish Care. 16 November, Glasgow. 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.

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