Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

SPPC responses to consultations

SPPC has responded to two committees of the Scottish Parliament which had called for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.  The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee issued a call for views on the Bill itself. The Finance and Public Administration Committee issued a call for views on the Financial Memorandum which was published alongside the Bill, and which estimates the costs of the Bill should it become law.  You can read SPPC’s responses (combined in one document) here.

Financial Aspects

The Finance and Public Administration Committee of the Scottish Parliament has published the 22 responses it received to its recent call for views on the Finance Memorandum which sits alongside the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill.  You can read the responses here.

SG Consultation on Proposed Amendments to the Adults with Incapacity Act

Scottish Government is undertaking a consultation on proposed changes to the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, including changes with implications for palliative care. This is the first step in a wider programme of work to reform mental health and incapacity law in Scotland over the next ten years, following the recommendations of the Scottish Mental Health Law Review.  The closing date is 17 October 2024.

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Sharing current Scottish practice

The SPPC Palliative Care Poster Parade is an online collection of posters showcasing best practice and new initiatives to improve experiences of living with serious illness, dying and bereavement in Scotland and further afield. All of the posters are available to view on the SPPC website, and each month we’ll highlight a few in the the SPPC e-bulletin and in our blog. This month we highlight these nine posters:

• Giving yourself loving kindness click here
• “Greetin’ for a wee bawbee”: Embracing Scottish Heritage within Music Therapy in a Palliative Care Setting click here
• Growing up in palliative care – is there a prescription for transition? click here
• Heart Failure: Getting to the heart of ‘What Matters to You’ Conversations click here
• “Here’s My Number, Call Me Maybe?” Developing a Specialist Palliative Care Telephone Advice Line for Healthcare Professionals click here
• Hospital Palliative Care Team Referrals for People with Advanced Liver Disease click here
• “I just want to be me”: End of life care for trans and gender diverse communities click here
• Improving oral care for those with frailty and life limiting illness: A quality improvement project in a Hospice and Acute Hospital Medicine for the Elderly setting click here
• Inequalities faced by prisoners in the UK in relation to their access to palliative care click here

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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Alzheimer Scotland: Commission on the Future of Long Term Care in Scotland report

Alzheimer Scotland’s Commission on the Future of Long Term Care in Scotland report has been published, and sets out 16 key recommendations which Alzheimer Scotland believes will help Scotland better understand the existing landscape and deliver a comprehensive and ethical commissioning strategy for long term care.

Find out more here.  

Call for posters: SPPC Annual Conference 2024

Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care are inviting abstracts for the SPPC Annual Conference 2024 - the Space Between.  There are opportunities to exhibit posters as well as exhibition stands and publication displays.  The closing date for submissions is Friday 27 October. Find more details here. 

Call for Posters: NHS Education for Scotland Bereavement Conference

NES are inviting abstracts for the International Bereavement Education Conference 2024 - Bereavement in the modern world: Kindness in the chaos.  The deadline for submissions is 7 October 2024.  Further information can be found on the NES Events website.

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The experience of hope in dyads living with advanced chronic illness in Portugal: a longitudinal mixed-methods study

Befecadu, F.B.P., Gonçalves, M., Fernandes, C. et al. The experience of hope in dyads living with advanced chronic illness in Portugal: a longitudinal mixed-methods study. BMC Palliat Care 23, 207 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-024-01528-x

A study recently published in BMC Palliative Care sought to elucidate the intricate interplay between the construct of hope and the lived experience of advanced chronic illness within patient-caregiver dyads. Objectives were (a) to explore the dyadic experience of hope as a changing dynamic over time for patients living with advanced chronic illness and their informal caregivers and (b) to evaluate variations of hope and symptom burden across time. 

Read the paper in full here.

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SPPC Annual Conference 2024: confirmed speakers

An outline programme is now available for the SPPC Annual Conference, which will take place on Wednesday 06 November 2024 at the John McIntyre Conference Centre, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Park Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5AY. 

For more information, including the draft programme, speaker profiles, opportunities to exhibit, and registration, please visit the conference webpage. 

SPPC responses to Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

SPPC has responded to two committees of the Scottish Parliament which had called for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.  The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee issued a call for views on the Bill itself. The Finance and Public Administration Committee issued a call for views on the Financial Memorandum which was published alongside the Bill, and which estimates the costs of the Bill should it become law. You can read SPPC’s responses (combined in one document) here.

Opportunity to Get Involved: SPPC’s Response to SG Consultation on Proposed Amendments to the Adults with Incapacity Act

SPPC will be developing a response to Scottish Government’s consultation on proposed changes to the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.  Please get in touch if you have views and/or would like to be involved in a discussion of the topic: mark@palliativecarescotland.org.uk.

SPPC initiative shortlisted for the Self Management Awards 2024

The Self Management Awards take place each year to celebrate the best of Self Management support across Scotland.

SPPC are delighted to share that the EASE (End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone) course has been shortlisted in the category “Self Management Resource” alongside these other excellent projects:

• Covid Rehab Team NHS Lanarkshire/NHS Scotland – National Services Scotland Long Covid
• End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone (EASE) – Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care
• Long Covid Support – Scottish Ballet

Congratulations to all the shortlisted projects and organisations! Winners will be announced at the end of September.

To Absent Friends Festival - Get involved

To Absent Friends is a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance that takes place across Scotland 1-7 November each year. The festival exists to encourage participation. Groups, communities and organisations are welcome to plan events, and these become the To Absent Friends event programme.  We have published a guide to provide inspiration and information for people considering holding a To Absent Friends event: To Absent Friends: Guide to Holding an Event

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New short film: Perspectives from an Emergency Department Team

NHS Education for Scotland, in collaboration with colleagues from NHS Grampian, have launched a new film: “Dealing with Death and Bereavement at Work: Perspectives from an Emergency Department Team”. The film highlights the experiences of a range of clinical and non-clinical Emergency Department staff as they encounter situations involving death and bereavement in the course of their work.  An accompanying flyer with reflective questions has been published alongside the film. 

Encountering Death & Bereavement at Work - Resources for Portering Teams 

NHS Education for Scotland has brough together some resources to support portering teams dealing with a bereavement situation at work: For more information, please contact NES at supportarounddeath@nes.scot.nhs.uk

Bereavement Support Training with Cruse Scotland

Cruse Scotland have launched a new range of training opportunities relating to grief, bereavement and loss.  These training sessions are interactive, and discussions are welcomed and encouraged. View Cruse Scotland’s training calendar here and follow the links for further information or to register. Courses are priced at £50 or less.

Macmillan Education and Training

The Macmillan Learning Hub has digital learning resources available on the subject of reducing inequalities in cancer care including:

• Reducing inequalities in cancer care for LGBTQ+ communities 
• Developing Cultural Competence 

Macmillan has also released a new episode of the Cancer Professionals Podcast, where Kelly Kohut, lead consultant genetic counsellor, and Emma Jenkins a patient representative working with the South East NHS Genomic Medicine Service, explore what genomics is, how it is changing cancer care, and what it’s really like to be diagnosed with a genetic condition.   To access this content log in to the Learning Hub.

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Palliative Care: Looking through a different lens

Organised by Strathcarron Hospice. 2-3 September 2024, Edinburgh.

More information is available here: weblink.

Training courses from Cruse Scotland Bereavement Support

• Disenfranchised Grief, Wednesday 11 September
• It’s not fair, Thursday 12 September or Monday 27 January
• Compassionate Conversations, Tuesday 17 September or ay 28 October or Monday 9 December or Tuesday 21 January
• Supporting children affected by a bereavement, Monday 23 September
• Pouring from an empty cup, Thursday 26 September or Tuesday 26 November or Thursday 9 January
• Cultural Differences in Death, Dying & Bereavement, Tuesday 15 October 
• No one died, but I am grieving, Thursday 17 October or Monday 13 January
• Why me? Wednesday 23 October 
• Compassionate Conversations, 
• Enhancing Therapeutic Practice in Grief and Loss, Thursday 21 November 
• Supporting people with learning disabilities with grief, Friday 17 January 20

More information is available here: Cruse Scotland Training Calendar

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

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 13 September 2024, online.

For further information and to book your place, visit the website or email frida@hc-uk.org.uk.

Webinar: Together for Short Lives & NEA Energy Webinar

Organised by Together for Short Lives & National Energy Action (NEA). 18 September 2024, online.

Together for Short Lives will be joined by an expert from National Energy Action (NEA), who will discuss fuel poverty, what it means, who is at risk and how professionals can recognise and identify a family in a vulnerable situation. 

For more information and to register, please visit the webinar webpage.

Webinar: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with people with Motor Neurone Disease

Organised by the University of Edinburgh. Tuesday 24 September 2024, 12.30pm-14.00, online.

In this MAIN webinar Prof Rebecca Gould will talk about her work as lead author of the COMMEND trial.

For more information and to register, please visit the webinar Events page.

Supporting and Improving Communication in End of Life Care

Organised by Healthcare Conferences UK. 25 September 2024, online. 

For further information and to book your place, visit the website or email aman@hc-uk.org.uk.

8th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference: “Building Bridges Between Science and People”

Organised by PHPCI International. 22-25 October, Bern, Switzerland.

Find out more at the conference website.

To Absent Friends Festival

Initiated by Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief. 1-7 November across Scotland. A people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance, with events organised by communities and organisations across Scotland. More information is available here: To Absent Friends festival

SPPC Annual Conference 2024 - The Space Between

Organised by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care.  6 November 2024, Edinburgh.  

For more information, please visit the conference webpage. 

European Grief Conference 2024

Organised by the Irish Hospice Foundation with partners Bereavement Network Europe, Danish National Center for Grief and RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dublin, Ireland, 11-13 November 2024. Registration for the conference is now open here.

Find out more at the conference website.

CPD Conference - Mental illness and Palliative care: Care gaps and complexity

Organised by Royal Society of Medicine Palliative Care. Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole St, London, W1G 0AE, 26 November 2024, 9am - 5pm.

For more information and to register, visit the conference website.

Hospice UK National Conference 2024

Registration is now open for the Hospice UK National Conference 2024, which runs at the SEC in Glasgow from 26th – 28th November.

This year’s theme is Hospice Care for all, for now, forever. The conference programme has been guided by Hospice UK’s new five-year strategy which explores three priorities: Improving equity of access, enhancing quality care and achieving sustainability.

You can find more information and book your place on the Hospice UK website.

NES Bereavement Conference: “Bereavement in the modern world: Kindness in the chaos”

Organised by NHS Education for Scotland’s Bereavement Education Programme. 3 December 2024, online. 

This virtual international conference is for all those working across health and social care. More information is available here: weblink.

Registration is now open here. Registration closes on Tuesday 19^th November.

2025 Marie Curie Research into Practice Conference 

Organised by Marie Curie. Week commencing Monday 10 February 2025, online.

The call for abstracts is now open. The closing date is 7 October 2024. More information on the conference and the submission process is available here. 

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