Health and Social Care Strategy for Older People - Consultation Analysis

The Scottish Government has published an analysis report of its consultation on the Health and Social Care Strategy and a 'you said, we did' update on this work.

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New resources for practitioners supporting family carers

The Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool Intervention (CSNAT-I) is an intervention designed to enable practitioners to tailor support to carers’ needs. NHS England has funded a new CSNAT website and a set of training videos to improve information, access and training for practitioners interested in using the intervention.

Village in the City podcast episode - "Strathcarron Hospice: Moving from 'community engagement' to 'community development'"

In this episode of the Village in the City podcast, Susan High and Hannah Gray from Strathcarron Hospice share their experiences of moving the hospice from a 'community engagement' focus to a 'community development' focus.

Sharing current Scottish Practice

The SPPC Autumn Season 2022 featured an online poster exhibition of 55 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:

• A 24/7 District Nursing Palliative Care Helpline in Fife: enabling timely, person-centred end of life care in the community
• A Creative Burst Before Lunch! A review of the use of weekly Creative, Therapeutic Arts group sessions in a hospice day service setting
• A Heartful Journey - Hospice Transport Service
• A Review of NHS Ayrshire and Arran Hospital Palliative Care Team TRAKCARE data 2021-2022
• Absent Friends Project: Patient Belonging Bags
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for people with palliative care needs, their caregivers and staff involved in their care: A systematic scoping review

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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'It's Not Like in the Films': Bereavement People's Experiences of the Deathbed Vigil

Glenys Caswell, Eleanor Wilson, Nicola Turner, Kristian Pollock.

This paper explores how people enact and experience the deathbed vigil when someone close to them is dying. It draws on qualitative interviews with 34 bereaved people carried out as part of a wider study exploring public perceptions of death and dying.

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Award winners

The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care has won the prestigious Voluntary Sector Partnership Award at this year's annual Scottish Public Service Awards. The award, sponsored by SCVO, is designed to recognise public and third-sector organisations working in partnership to deliver better outcomes in public services. The SPPC won the award in recognition of its work to improve people's experiences of living with serious illness, caring, dying and grieving in Scotland.

The award highlights that, over 30 years, quietly and with a low profile, SPPC has enabled collaboration which has led to service improvement, innovation, education, policy development, problem solving and education, within a domain that people often find hard to think about. We also work directly with the public, enabling community-led action, public education and information resources.

Poster winners at NES Bereavement Conference

SPPC is part of the team behind the winning poster at the NES bereavement conference in November, for a poster entitled Bereavement Charter Mark for Employers: a pilot in Inverclyde. The poster explores work done by Inverclyde Cares, Child Bereavement UK and Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief to help workplaces in Inverclyde to become more supportive environments for bereaved staff.

SPPC Posters at Hospice UK Conference

The SPPC displayed four posters at the recent Hospice UK Conference:

P-17 Hospice use of the ‘EASE’ course to improve public confidence and skills around dying, death and bereavement

Rebecca Patterson, Lorna Reid, Caroline Gibb, Mark Hazelwood

BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care Nov 2022, 12 (Suppl 3) A16; DOI: 10.1136/spcare-2022-HUNC.39

Caroline Sime, Kirsty Boyd, Deans Buchanan, Gordon McLean, Trisha Hatt, Mark Hazelwood

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Together for Short Lives Cost of Living Support Fund

A Support Fund has been established by Together for Short Lives to provide a one-off payment to a limited number of families with a child with a life-limiting/life-threatening condition dependent on medical technology to sustain life. The fund aims to provide extra money to alleviate financial worries. For more information, read this PDF.

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Medical Advisory Group Report

Liam McArthur MSP invited a group of senior healthcare practitioners to form a working group to advise and inform the process of drafting a final bill relating to Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults in Scotland. The Medical Advisory Group has published their report, and it can be viewed here: Assisted dying for terminally ill adults (Scotland) Bill: Medical Advisory Group Report

Enhanced Palliative and End of Life Care Learning & Development Toolkit for Health and Social Care Professionals

If you work in health/social care you can now access the Macmillan Enhanced Palliative and End of Life Care Learning and DevelopmentToolkit. These interactive resources cover a range of topics to enhance your knowledge and skills in Palliative and End of Life Care. For free access, sign up here: Macmillan website

NES Bereavement Conference: Posters available to view

All of the posters displayed at the NES Bereavement Conference in November are available to view here: NES Bereavement Conference Posters

Hospice UK Conference: Abstracts available

BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care has published abstracts relating to Hospice UK's recent conference, which can be viewed here: online conference supplement.

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Save the Date - SPPC Conference 2023

The next SPPC Conference will take place on 22 November 2023.

Bereavement Webinar - Gender-Based Violence and Bereavement

Organised by NHS Education for Scotland. 25 January 2023, 12:30 - 13:30, online event.

This webinar is for health and social care staff. For more information email SupportAroundDeath@nes.scot.nhs.uk or visit www.sad.scot.nhs.uk/events/. Register here.

Caledonia Funeral Aid - Funeral Costs Training Free Online Workshop

Organised by Caledonia Funeral Aid with the support of Edinburgh Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund. 8 February 2023, online event.

This workshop is intended for staff of charities, advice providers, care workers, and anyone who may be asked to advise on how to plan or pay for a funeral. For more information on the initiative, please see the website, or for more on the training, see here. To register, please contact Caledonia@funerals.scot.

Marie Curie Research Conference 2023 - Improving End of Life for All

Organised by Marie Curie. 6-10 February 2023, online event, free for all to attend. More information is available here: website.

International Advanced European Bioethics course - "Suffering, Death and Palliative Care"

Organised by the Healthcare Ethics, IQ healthcare department of Radboud University medical centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. 21-24 March 2023, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit the course website.

Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines Education Module

Organised by NHS Education for Scotland.

The Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines Education Module is now live on TURAS Learn. The module is open to all registered users on TURAS Learn. If you are a registered TURAS Learn user, you can access the module here.

Association for Continence Advice (ACA) Annual Conference and Exhibition

Organised by the ACA Conference Organising Group. 15th and 16th May 2023, at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham. For more information and to register, visit the website.

2023 Global Ageing Network Biennial Conference

Organised in partnership with Scottish Care and the National Care Forum. 7-8 September 2023, Glasgow. More information is available at the conference website.

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