Palliative Medicine Speciality Advisor to the Scottish Government appointed

Dr Deans Buchanan (Consultant in Palliative Medicine/Lead Clinician NHS Tayside and Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership) has been appointed as Palliative Medicine Specialty Advisor to the Scottish Government Health & Social Care Directorates (SGHSCD) and the Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

Personalising Realistic Medicine

Dr Catherine Calderwood has launched Personalising Realistic Medicine, her fourth annual report as Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer.

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Advance Payment Scheme for survivors of abuse who are approaching end of life

Survivors of childhood abuse, which occurred in care in Scotland, can now apply for advanced redress payments. The scheme will be open to people who have a terminal illness or are aged 70 or over. A news release with details of the application process is available.

A Fairer Scotland for Older People: framework for action

The Scottish Government have developed a new framework designed to challenge the inequalities older people face as they age and to celebrate older people in Scotland.

New guide to body donation

The Scottish Government have published a guide to donating your body to medical science in Scotland.

Cross Party Group on Palliative Care

The next meeting of the Cross Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Palliative Care will take place on 5 June 2019. This will include presentations and discussion relating to Shaping bereavement care in the future: what next for Scotland?

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Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines

A selective update to the Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines is now complete and revised content is available on the website. The update includes one new guideline on the management of end stage liver disease; a refresh of guidance on the use of the CME T34 Syringe Pumps and a number of new medicine information sheets.

Applications invited: Living and Dying Well with Frailty Collaborative

Healthcare Improvement Scotland are seeking interest from Health and Social Care Partnerships and GP Clusters to join the new Living and Dying Well with Frailty Collaborative. The collaborative aims to improve earlier identification, anticipatory care planning and shared decision-making, and support a multidisciplinary/agency approach so that people living with frailty get the support they need, at the right time, at the right place. Teams will be invited to work with HIS between August 2019 and October 2020 to improve the identification and support of people with frailty living in the community.

More information is available on the Living and Dying Well with Frailty website or get in touch to discuss on hcis.livingwell@nhs.net or by calling 0131 314 1232.

Delivering the news of a death by telephone

NES have launched a new video which aims to help professionals prepare for and undertake conversations when circumstances require them to deliver the news of a death by telephone.

General standards for neurological care and support

Healthcare Improvement Scotland have published a set of general standards for neurological care and support.

British Liver Trust publication

The British Liver Trust have published Thinking Ahead: Planning for your future when you have advanced liver disease, a new report to raise awareness of the support services available to those living with advanced liver disease and offer advice on how to access them. Download here: weblink.

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:

• Evaluating the Safer Prescription of Opioids Tool (SPOT) in clinical practice
• Foundations in Palliative Care: A Programme of Facilitated Learning for Care Home Staff and Home Carers
• Hospital Doctor's Experience of Caring for Dying Patients: Report of themes from free text responses
• Impact of population ageing on end-of-life care in Scotland: Population based projections of place of death and recommendations for future service provision
• Improving identification of people who could benefit from a palliative care approach
• Improving Palliative Care for People who are Homeless in Scotland - Possible Solutions

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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The Motivations and Consequences of Dying at Home: Family Caregiver Perspectives

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Who lives in Scotland’s care homes? Descriptive analysis using routinely collected social care data 2012–16

Jennifer K Burton, Ellen Lynch, Sharon Love, Julie Rintoul, John M Starr, Susan D Shenkin.

The aim of this study was to provide the first description of the adult care home population and their homes, using routinely collected data.

‘It was peaceful, it was beautiful’: A qualitative study of family understandings of good end-of-life care in hospital for people dying in advanced age

Merryn Gott, Jackie Robinson, Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Stella Black, Lisa Williams, Rawiri Wharemate, Janine Wiles

The aim of this study was to identify examples of good care received in the hospital setting during the last 3 months of life for people dying in advanced age from the perspective of bereaved family members.

ChiSP 2 Report

CHAS have published Children in Scotland requiring Palliative Care (ChiSP) 2, a new research report giving up to-date information about the numbers and characteristics of babies, children and young people aged 0-21 who have live-shortening conditions.

BLS Conference: Call for Abstracts and Educational Grant Places

The British Lymphology Society has put out a Call for Abstracts for its annual conference in October. A number of Educational Grant Places are also available. More information is available here: weblink

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Expressions of interest sought - the Truacanta Project

The Truacanta Project is a new compassionate communities initiative being run by the SPPC and funded by Macmillan Cancer Support.

The project will support local communities across Scotland who are interested in taking community action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care.

Expressions of interest in being part of the project are being sought until 15 June 2019, and we welcome applications from those already working in this area as well as people completely new to the field. More information, including an invitation to express interest in becoming part of the project, is available here: The Truacanta Project

Introducing Caroline Gibb

We're pleased to welcome Caroline Gibb, Truacanta Project Manager, to the staff team at the SPPC. Caroline shares some of her reflections and hopes for the new project in this blog: Truacanta blog.

Scottish Compassionate Communities Toolkit

The Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief and the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care have launched the Scottish Compassionate Communities Toolkit. The toolkit is a collection of resources for people wishing to make their local community more supportive of people going through difficult times that can come with death, dying, loss and care.

The toolkit brings together work from across Scotland and beyond, providing ideas to help people develop their own projects addressing local experiences of death, dying, loss and care.

End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care is developing a public education course for anyone who wants to be able to support someone with issues they face relating to death, dying and bereavement.

The course is aimed at members of the public who want to increase their baseline knowledge of matters relating to dying and bereavement, and to build their confidence and comfort supporting others through these difficult times.

There are plans to run a small pilot of the course in Autumn 2019, followed by further refinement and development of the course.

In 2020 we’ll be looking for organisations and individuals interested in running End of Life Aid Skills (EASE) courses in their area. If this is something that may interest you, or you'd like to be kept informed of developments, please get in touch.

Unleashing Compassion Conference

Last week, 160 people gathered in Glasgow for Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief's Unleashing Compassion Conference, and event exploring how to encourage open and supportive attitudes and behaviours relating to death, dying and bereavement in Scotland. The conference saw the launch of the Truacanta Project and the Scottish Compassionate Communities Toolkit, and provided an opportunity for delegates to network, share their work, and hear about all kinds of work happening in different parts of Scotland. The event was the second gathering of the Scottish Compassionate Communities Network since its launch in October last year.

BASRiS consultation

The SPPC has submitted a response to the Scottish Government's Consultation on Benefits Assistance Under Special Rules in Scotland (BASRiS).

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Nurse Consultant in Palliative and End of Life Care post

NHS Tayside are advertising for a Nurse Consultant in PEOLC in partnership with Macmillan. Closing date 17 May 2019. Full application pack available here: weblink.

The third annual Dundas Medal - a collaboration between PATCH and the RCS Edinburgh is open for submissions. It commemorates Dr Charles Robert (Bertie) Dundas and is awarded to recognise efforts to improve the provision of palliative care for patients when they are in hospital. Closing date 26 June 2019. Full details are available here: weblink.

New child bereavement helpline

Children's bereavement charity Grief Encounter have launched Grieftalk, a free helpline providing confidential advice to bereaved children and young people.

NES Supporting Scottish Grief & Bereavement Care Annual Report

The Supporting Scottish Grief & Bereavement Care Workstream at NES has launched its first Annual Report which provides a summary of key achievements in 2018–19.

In The Media

Evening Times: Glasgow hospital and CHAS unite to help families

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Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference 2019

18 September 2019, Edinburgh. More details to follow.

DMD/SMA Young Adults' Forum

Organised by The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, Muscular Dystrophy UK, Scottish Muscle Network and DMD Pathfinders. 12 May 2019, Clydebank. Registration here: weblink.

Valuing and Sustaining Volunteering in Health Conference

Organised by Voluntary Health Scotland. 14 May 2019, Glasgow. 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.

International Symposium: Volunteers at the heart of hospice and palliative care. Opportunities and challenges 2030.

Organised by EAPC Task Force on Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care in Europe; German Association for Palliative Medicine; German Hospice and Palliative Care Association and Hospice Austria. 25 May 2019, Germany. More information is available here: weblink.

Alzheimer Scotland Annual Conference

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

Bereavement Training for Professionals

Organised by Child Bereavement UK. Considering the impact on healthcare professionals when a child dies. 5 June 2019, Dumbartonshire. 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.

Building and sustaining compassionate communities: The role of the Churches in supporting people with end of life matters

Organised by Faith in Older People and the Church of Scotland Guild in collaboration with SPPC. 11 June 2019, Edinburgh. 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.

Modern Medicine and Death - An Unhealthy Relationship?

Organised by Glasgow Science Festival. 11 June 2019, Glasgow. More information is available here: weblink.

Digital Life, Legacy and Afterlife

Organised by Marie Curie & Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief. The event will discuss practical elements of our digital life and afterlife, such as planning, social media, online accounts and memorialisation, and online mourning and grieving, including ethical considerations that go along with it. 19 June 2019, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Bereavement Care - Past Present and Future

Organised by Cruse Bereavement Care. Celebrating 60 years of Cruse with experts on the topic of grief and bereavement. 4 & 5 July 2019, Birmingham. More information is available here: weblink.

Effective Non-Medical Prescribing in End of Life Care

Organised by HC-UK Conferences. 10 July 2019, Manchester. More information is available here: weblink.

Caldicott Principles & Information Sharing in End of Life Care

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

Organised by NHS Tayside. 28 August 2019, Dundee. More information is available here: weblink. 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.

Starting with the end in mind; A realistic approach to bereavement and resilience

Organised by NES. 11 November 2019, Edinburgh. 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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