Scottish Government Health and Social Care Strategy for Older People

The Scottish Government plans to launch a consultation on the Health and Social Care Strategy for Older People on 8 March 2022.

Change in the terminal illness definition for disability assistance in Scotland

Scottish Government has released an update providing a high level overview of the upcoming change in the terminal illness definition for disability assistance in Scotland.

Social Security Scotland are organising two stakeholer events that may be of particular interest to clinicians and people supporting adults who are terminally ill working in the first pilot areas; Dundee City and Perth & Kinross and Western Isles local authorities. More information about these is available here: Social Security Scotland - Adult Disability Payment - Special Rules for Terminal Illness

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Effective Communication for Healthcare (EC4H) - new resources

New resources have been launched on the EC4H website. This page has lots of helpful resources to support effective clinical communication.

Sharing Scottish Practice

The SPPC Autumn Season 2021 featured an online poster exhibition of 36 posters, sharing work and research underway across Scotland. Each month, our blog focuses on the content of a few of these posters. This month, we focus on:

• End of life Care Communication: developing an educational package for critical care nurses
• End of Life Care Together Highland
• Enhanced Palliative Care Helpline Highland
• Exploring the impact of weekly lunch and learn events within a hospital palliative care service
• For Young People, By Young People
• Hospice Hearty Meals

The SPPC blog is a space to share practice currently underway in Scotland. If you have practice you'd like to share, please get in touch.

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Shining a light on death, dying and bereavement in Scotland

Taking place across Scotland from 2-6 May, Demystifying Death Week is about shining a light on death, dying and bereavement in Scotland. All are welcome to take part by planning activities that bring death, dying and bereavement into the limelight. This year, there is a special focus on grief in the workplace.

Get involved

Would you like to be involved with this year's Demystifying Death Week? If so, come along to our Lunchtime Chat event on zoom 9th March at 1pm. Low key and informal, this is a chance to get together with others to discuss thoughts, ideas and plans. Book a place by emailing info@goodlifedeathgrief.org.uk

Since the first death awareness week back in 2013, each May, people across Scotland organise local events giving people the chance to talk about death, dying and bereavement. All kinds of events take place, including workshops, death cafes, film nights, lunch groups, craft sessions, lectures, seminars, planning sessions and more. In recent years, many people have moved their events online. More information about holding a DD Week event is available here: Hold an event

Small Grants Available

A small grants scheme has been launched to help people run activities, whether face-to-face or online. The grants (of up to £100) can be applied for to fund activities that take place in DD Week that meet one or more of the following aims:

• Help people to find ways of dealing with their own experiences of death, dying and bereavement;
• Help individuals and communities to support those who are experiencing difficult times associated with death, dying and bereavement;
• Support NHS and social care staff and volunteers to work compassionately and constructively with those who are dying or have been recently bereaved;
• Help people to make practical preparations for their death, for example Will, Power of Attorney and Anticipatory Care Planning;
• Promote openness/discussion of death, dying and bereavement.

More information is available here: DD Week Small Grants

Grief in the Workplace

DD Week will see the launch of a new suite of resources help managers, employers and colleagues create more bereavement-friendly workplaces. If you’re interested in making workplaces more compassionate places for people who are bereaved, there are lots of ways to get involved in the run up to Demystifying Death Week:

• Send us your experience of returning to work after a bereavement – we’re looking for case studies to publish on our website.
• Do you know of good resources to help employers do better at supporting bereaved staff? Please get in touch.
• Would you like to be one of the first employers to receive the new bereavement charter mark? Please get in touch to find out more.

DD Week Resources

We have lots of resources freely available that can be used for DD Week events, including films, information leaflets, event planning templates and exhibitions: Demystifying Death Week Resources

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'They’re Going to Die at Some Point, but We’re all Going to Die’ – A Qualitative Exploration of Bereavement in Later Life

This article by Chao Fang and Sam Carr reports on a qualitative study to investigate what bereavement means to older people.

Caring for your child at end of life – family guide

Together for Short Lives has published Caring for your child at the end of life - family guide, which aims to provide practical information to support families who are caring for a child with a life-limiting illness.

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An ethical framework for visitation of inpatients receiving palliative care in the COVID-19 context

This paper by Bethany Russell, Leeroy William and Michael Chapman is about a practical framework of visiting restrictions for inpatients receiving palliative and end-of-life care developed by the Australian and New Zealand Society for Palliative Medicine COVID-19 Special Interest Group.

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SPPC Annual Conference 2022

The SPPC team is really looking forward to welcoming you back to a face-to-face conference on 30 May, at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The event will be broadly framed by exploring how a population health approach can improve people’s experiences of living with serious illness, dying and bereavement.

The full programme is being finalised with details to follow. Confirmed speakers to date are:

• Kathryn Mannix –- Award-winning author & retired palliative medicine consultant.
• Fliss Murtagh – Professor of Palliative Care, Hull York Medical School
  
• Ivor Williams - Lead for End-of-Life Care at the Institute of Global Health Innovation and Helix Centre at Imperial College London.
• Mark Evans - SG Strategic Lead for Spiritual Care, and Head of Spiritual Care & Bereavement Lead (NHS Fife).
• Kenny Steele–- Co-Chair, End of Life Care Together partnership and CEO Highland Hospice.
• Michael Loynd - Macmillan Clinical Programme Director, End of Life Care Together

In the event that COVID-19 prevents us from offering the conference on a face to face basis we will move elements of the event online, and aim to offer a partial refund. Go to the SPPC website for more information and to book a place: SPPC Conference 2022.

End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone in Scotland

The Journal of Palliative Care and Social Practice has published End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone in Scotland - an article detailing the development of the EASE course by the SPPC. More information about the EASE course is available here: EASE course.

SPPC Annual Report and Accounts

The SPPC has published its accounts for the year ending 31 March 2021.

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Lancet Commission on the Value of Death

The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death has published its report.

National Day of Reflection 2022

A National Day of Reflection will take place on 23 March 2022, to support the millions of people who've been bereaved during the pandemic and to reflect on the lives of the people who have died.

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SPPC Annual Conference 2022

Organised by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care. 30 May, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

UK Launch of Lancet Commission on the Value of Death

1 March 2022, London or online. More information is available here: weblink

Training for doctors - maintaining wellbeing in working with loss, death and grief

Organised by Child Bereavement UK. 3 March 2022, 11 am - 12 pm. More information is available here: weblink.

Intergenerational Conference 2022

Organised by Generations Working Together, online, 7 March 2022. More information is available here: weblink.

Getting Ready for Demystifying Death Week: Lunchtime Chat

Organised by Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, online, 9 March, 1pm - 2pm. More information is available here: weblink. Email info@goodlifedeathgrief.org.uk to book a place.

Medical Treatment Decisions: Law & Ethics

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 10 March 2022, online. More information is available here: weblink (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

A Practical Guide to Best Practice Symptom Control & Management in End of Life Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 10 March 2022, online. More information is available here: weblink (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Contemporary Spiritual Healthcare

Organised by Sobell House Hospice. Online. 16 March 2022. More information is available here: weblink.

Advanced European bioethics course “Suffering, Death and Palliative Care”

Organised by Healthcare Ethics, IQ healthcare, Radboud University Medical centre. Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 22-25 March 2022. More information is available here: weblink.

Reducing & Managing Pressure Ulcers at the End of Life

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 24 March 2022, online. More information is available here: weblink (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Improving End of Life Care for People with Dementia during Covid-19

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 25 April 2022, Online. More information is available here: weblink. (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Decisions about Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): Ensuring Effective & Person Centred Practice

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 13 May 2022, online. More information is available here: weblink. (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Caldicott Principles & Information Sharing in End of Life Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 17 May 2022, Online. More information is available here: weblink. (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Non Medical Prescribing in Cancer Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 19 May 2022, Online. More information is available here: weblink. (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Improving Adult Bereavement Care, Support & Services

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 9 June 2022, online. More information is available here: weblink. (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Improving End of Life Care for people with Cardiovascular Disease & Heart Failure

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK.16 June 2022, Online. More information is available here: weblink. (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Effective Non Medical Prescribing in End of Life Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 29 June 2022, Online. More information is available here: weblink. (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Improving End of Life Care: Improving care and support during Covid-19 & Meeting the End of Life Care Quality Standard Update (Sept 2021)

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 26 April 2022, online. More information is available here: weblink (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

Caldicott Principles & Information Sharing in End of Life Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK, on demand. More information is available here: weblink (20% discount with code hcuk20sppc.)

After the last breath

Organised by Pushing up the Daisies. 27/04, 18/05. 08/06, 29/06 – all at 7pm. More information is available here: weblink.

Palliative Care Conference 2022 - Challenges in end of life care

Organised by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Online, 29 April 2022. More information is available here: weblink.

Demystifying Death Week

Participative event initiated by Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, taking place across Scotland, 2- 6 May. More information is available here: weblink

Malcolm Goldsmith Lecture with Dr Kathryn Mannix and Rt Rev Richard Holloway

Organised by Faith in Older People. 4.30pm, 12 May 2022, on Zoom. Details of how to book will be available in due course.

Music therapy in end-of-life care: Relational and community perspectives

Organised by Queen Margaret and St Columba's Hospice Care. 7 June 2022, Edinburgh. More information is available here: weblink.

Institutions and Death

Organised by the University of Bath Centre for Death and Society. Online, 9-10 June 2022. More information is available here: weblink.

7th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference

Organised by PHPCI. 20-22 September 2022, Bruge, Belgium. More information is available here: weblink.

After the last breath

Organised by Pushing up the Daisies. 01/10, 22/10, 12/11, 03/12 – all at 11am. More information is available here: weblink.

To Absent Friends, A People's Festival of Storytelling and Remembrance

Participative event initiated by Good LIfe, Good Death, Good Grief. More information is available here: weblink.

2022 NES Bereavement Education Conference

Organised by NHS Education Scotland. Online. Thursday 24^th November 2022. More information will be available in due course.

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