Responses to the call for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

Published responses to the recent Health, Social Care and Sport Committee call for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill are now available on the Scottish Parliament website here.  A very brief quantitative overview of the responses, limited to the only the questions found in both the short form and long from surveys can be found here. 

Responses to the call for views on the financial aspects of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

Published responses to the Finance and Public Administration Committee’s call for views on the financial aspects of the Assisted Dying Bill are now available on the Scottish Parliament website here.

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Pension Age Disability Payment Pilot 

Phase 1 of the Pension Age Disability Payment, the Scottish replacement for Attendance Allowance, will be piloted in five local authority areas from 21 October 2024.  The pilot areas are Argyll and Bute; Highland; City of Aberdeen; Orkney Islands; Shetland Islands.  In these areas, from 21 October 2024, a BASRiS  form (instead of an SR1/DS1500 form) should be completed and sent to Social Security Scotland for all adults of state pension age, living in the above areas, who are terminally ill and applying for Pension Age Disability Payment

For those who become terminally ill and are already in receipt of Attendance Allowance but living outwith the above pilot areas, please continue to complete an SR1/DS1500 form and return it to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Phase 2 of the pilot phase will see the benefit become available in additional local authority areas from 24 March 2025, before opening for new applications nationally across Scotland on 22 April 2025. 

Please see this document for further information on:

• the Scottish terminal illness definition
• relevant Chief Medical Officer’s guidance
• BASRiS process in Scotland
• pilot and national launch dates
• where to access additional support.

Sharing 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 on our blog. This month we highlight these nine posters... click on the links to view the posters:

• Influencing a restorative culture through the embedding of Resilience Based Clinical Supervision at St Columba’s Hospice Care click here
• Inverclyde Macmillan Improving the Cancer Journey – Community Based Approach click here
• Launch of the new Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines website and mobile application click here
• Let’s Talk about OSCaRS click here
• “Living Matters Now”: Improving transitional care for young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions click here
• Longer term feasibility of an online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention to promote palliative care staff well-being click here
• Making SENSE of End of Life Care click here
• More Than The Last Breath click here
• Music and movement for people with Parkinson’s disease and their carers: A Dalcroze Eurhythmics pilot study within a hospice environment 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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Call for applications for 2024/25: Funding opportunities for remote and rural primary care research and evaluation

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is offering funding to support NHS primary care practitioners who wish to conduct research or evaluation activities appropriate to remote and rural health and care in Scotland.

More details and registration for information sessions are available here.  Further details on the selection criteria, research and evaluation themes for 2024/25 and the application process are available on the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care Information Hub.  If you have any questions relating to your application or the selection process, please email nes.ruralteam@nhs.scot.

Collaborative Research Secures £1.38M to Boost Psychological Support for Palliative Care Staff

A new joint study from the University of Edinburgh, University of Chester, Edge Hilll University, and Marie Curie has secured £1.38 million from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to evaluate psychological support for palliative care staff.  Read more about the study here.

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SPPC Annual Conference 2024: “The Space Between”

An outline programme is now available for the SPPC Annual Conference, which will take place on Wednesday 6th 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. 

Reminder: Call for Posters for the SPPC Annual Conference

By presenting a poster at the SPPC Annual Conference, you can showcase your work throughout the conference to a large and diverse audience. During the dedicated poster sessions you will have an opportunity to meet and connect with other delegates who share your interests; have questions about your poster and get feedback and suggestions from them. You can enjoy the experience of sharing your work with colleagues who are passionate about palliative care. A selection of poster authors will be given the chance to give a short oral presentation to the conference plenary. So, why not make the most of this opportunity and take on the challenge?

With only just over four weeks to go until the closing date for poster submissions (Friday 25 October 2024), now is the time to complete and submit a poster proposal form. Please email pauline.ellison@palliativecarescotland.org.uk for a poster proposal form.

Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief conference 2025 - Save the Date

The next Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief conference will take place at the Renfield Centre in Glasgow on 26 February 2025. Further details will be announced soon.

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. View this year’s events listings so far here.

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.

If you have questions or would like us to include your To Absent Friends activity in the listings, please email samara@palliativecarescotland.org.uk. 

EASE wins at the Self Management Awards 2024

SPPC are delighted to announce that EASE (End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone) has won in the category “Self Management Resource” at the Self Management Awards 2024.  The awards were announced at a reception hosted by the ALLIANCE at the Scottish Parliament as part of Self Management Week. Congratulations to all the winners and shortlisted projects, individuals and organisations.

Read more about the awards here.

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Marie Curie - Video Resources on Delirium

The Marie Curie research team in Scotland have produced two new video resources on delirium:

• “Delirium when you have a terminal illness” is for patients and carers
• “Delirium in palliative care” is for healthcare professionals

NHS Education for Scotland Bereavement Education Programme - Responding to a Colleague’s Death

The NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Bereavement Education Programme has recently launched a suite of 5 e-Learning modules that cover certain aspects of responding to a colleague’s death

Please note - You will need to login with your Turas account to view the experiencing the death of a colleague modules below:

• Experiencing the Death of a Colleague: Module 1 - An introduction to grief & bereavement
• Experiencing the death of a colleague: Module 2 - Sharing the news
• Experiencing the death of a colleague: Module 3 - Consideration for employers and managers
• Experiencing the death of a colleague: Module 4 - Support & wellbeing
• Experiencing the death of a colleague: Module 5 - Memorialising & remembering

For any questions, please contact SupportAroundDeath@nes.scot.nhs.uk.

Macmillan Education and Training

Macmillan has developed a new e-learning module, Psychological support skills to enhance cancer care  offering an overview of working with psychological distress in clinical practice to support people living with cancer. 

The next episode of the Cancer Professionals Podcast ‘Understanding Immunotherapy, what it is and how it feels’ is now live. Listen online at The Cancer Professionals Podcast | Macmillan Cancer Support. 

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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.

Training courses from Cruse Scotland Bereavement Support

• Compassionate Conversations 28 October or Monday 9 December or Tuesday 21 January
• 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

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.

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 and booking is available here: weblink.

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. 

Save the Date: Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief Conference

The next Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief conference will take place at the Renfield Centre in Glasgow on 26 February 2025. Further details to follow in the coming months.

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