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Welcome to Update, a monthly round-up of news relevant to palliative care in Scotland, brought to you by the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care. |
Policy |
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee oral evidence session on assisted dying and palliative care The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s oral evidence session on assisted dying and palliative care took place on 19 November. The Committee expects to complete Stage 1 Scrutiny of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill in Spring 2025. The recording of the session is now available on Scottish Parliament TV here. The palliative care section begins at 10:21:40. The official report of the session is now available here. SPPC CEO Mark Hazelwood has written a letter following the oral evidence session to bring two additional points on coercion and suffering to the committee’s attention. Read the letter in full here. Analysis of Responses to the call for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill published The Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (SPICE) has published its detailed analysis of responses to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s call for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. You can read the analysis in full here. Scottish Parliamentary Question on funding and protection of hospice care services: S6O-03972 Lodged by Miles Briggs MSP. Read in full here. Publication of report on the National Performance Framework: Review of National Outcomes The Finance and Public Administration Committee’s report on the National Performance Framework: Review of National Outcomes has been published. The Committee will also hold a Parliamentary debate on the report and its findings, the date of which will be notified via the Business Bulletin on the Parliament’s website and the Committee’s social media feed. Read the report here. Scottish Government Palliative Care Strategy: Palliative Care Matters for All The Scottish Government is consulting on their draft strategy ‘Palliative Care Matters for All’. The consultation will close on 10 January 2025. Details and information on how to respond to the consultation are available here: Draft Strategy Palliative Care Matters for All |
Practice |
Ageing and Frailty Standards HIS have published new Standards for Ageing and Frailty. The standards replace the current Care of Older People in Hospital standards and are designed to support national improvements in frailty services. They further aim to promote positive, healthy and active ageing. They cover older people who may experience frailty as they age and apply in all settings. You can read the standards here. Good practice guideline: care for spiritual distress (existential crisis) at the end of life HIS’ Right Decision Service has published a good practice guideline on care for spiritual distress at the end of life. Find the guideline here. 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:
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. |
Academic and Research |
Dying in Poverty in Scotland 2024 Marie Curie have published Dying in Poverty in Scotland 2024, a briefing of new research with Loughborough University exploring the extent of end of life poverty and fuel poverty, and linking findings to recommendations for both the Scottish and UK governments. Read the briefing in full here. Workforce Survey: Shaping the Future of Palliative and End-of-Life Care Research in the UK A research team from the University of Edinburgh, funded by Marie Curie, is seeking responses from researchers and research active clinicians to a national palliative care research workforce survey. This study aims to map the UK palliative care research workforce to help identify challenges, expand capacity, and improve career paths for palliative care researchers. Read the participant information sheet and complete the survey here. For more information, please contact Ikumi Okamoto at iokamoto@ed.ac.uk. |
Public and Patient Perspective |
EAPC Blog: “Costs of Informal Care - A Wake-Up Call” The European Association for Palliative Care has published a blog entry highlighting the value of the work of informal carers. “We know that care provided by family members and friends is very important to people with a life limiting illness, but do we know how much this care would cost if provided by professional carers? For July’s Palliative Medicine’s Editor’s Choice, Miriam J Johnson and David C Currow estimate the costs and tell us why informal carers must be supported to provide this essential care.” Read the article in full here. Understanding patient views and experiences of the IDENTIfication of PALLiative care needs (IDENTI-PALL): a qualitative interview study The British Journal of General Practice has published a new study aiming to provide new understanding into patient views and experiences of the process of identification of palliative care needs, and to explore the impact of identification on health care, if any, from a patient perspective. Read the open access study in full at BJGP here. |
SPPC News |
Demystifying Death: Making Change Happen The next Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief conference will be on the theme of Demystifying Death: Making Change Happen. It will take place at the Renfield Centre in Glasgow on 26 February 2025. Find out more about conference here. Registration is now open - book your place here. Further details and programme will be announced soon. SNAPC: Celebrating Achievements and Shaping the Future SNAPC will be holding a one-day networking event on Tuesday 21 January 2025 at the Renfield Centre, Bath Street, Glasgow to share learning and celebrate five years of the Scottish Network for Acute Palliative Care (SNAPC). This event is open to all (not just acute specialist teams). The agenda will share successes of the Building on the Best Project and look to the future development of integrated palliative care services across settings. The event will also seek ideas on the development of the innovation network proposed in the draft SG palliative care strategy and prioritise areas identified for improvement. Everyone is welcome for networking, information sharing and planning ahead, so come and join us and be a part of the conversation. Please register for your free place here. Seeking your views on the future direction of SPPC SPPC is thinking about where to focus its efforts over the next 3 years. It is important to us that our members and stakeholders help to shape the future of our work. It would be a big help to us if you could tell us what you think by completing this short survey. Thank you! Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief website re-design We have updated and refreshed the Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief website to better accommodate the range and variety of work that now falls under the GLGDGG banner. The new website has three main sections:
Check out the new website here: Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief SPPC Annual Conference Over 100 people attended the SPPC Annual Conference earlier this month, hearing from a range of inspiring speakers and participating in a variety of breakout sessions. Posters from the conference will be available in due course. Presentations from the conference are available here. To Absent Friends Festival The To Absent Friends festival took place 1-7 November, with over 70 events taking place across Scotland. A list of events from the festival is available here: To Absent Friends Festival 2024 |
Other News |
Guide to using screen readers with Right Decision Service websites and mobile apps Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Right Decision Service now has a guide page for using screen readers with Right Decision Service websites and apps. Several options are available to enhance usability and accessibility on many pages and resources, including the Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines and patient information leaflets. Find out more here. Bereavement Signposting: Theory of Change
Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief and the Bereavement Charter Group have published a consensus vision and theory of change for improving signposting to bereavement information and support in Scotland. Scotland’s Health Awards 2024 Congratulations to the Scottish Ambulance Service Macmillan Palliative Care team, Top Team Award winners at Scotland’s Health Awards 2024. Congratulations to all winners and finalists. Macmillan Education and Training Effective communication in cancer care is a new programme for health and social care professionals who wish to enhance their ability to communicate with clarity, empathy, and confidence. To find out more, visit the Effective communication in cancer care information page. The Cancer Professionals Podcast from Macmillan Cancer Support Demystifying Genomics: Building knowledge for effective cancer care? – available to listen now at The Cancer Professionals Podcast | Macmillan Cancer Support or on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. |
Courses and Events |
Training courses from Cruse Scotland Bereavement Support
More information is available here: Cruse Scotland Training Calendar 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. Coping with Professional Grief WorkshopOrganised by Hospice UK’s Compassionate Employers team as part of National Grief Awareness Week. Tuesday 3 December 2024, online. The practical and interactive workshop is recommended for all professionals working in health and social care, and their managers. Find out more and book your place here. Healthcare Conferences UK: CPD Virtual ConferencesOrganised by Healthcare Conferences UK. For dates and times of individual sessions, see below. Readers of this newsletter can receive a 20% discount with the code hcuk20sppc.
Healthcare Conferences UK: Professional Development Conferences & MasterclassesOrganised by Healthcare Conferences UK. For dates and times of individual sessions, see below. Readers of this newsletter can receive a 20% discount with the code hcuk20sppc.
RCPE Online Symposium: Palliative MedicineOrganised by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 22 January 2025, online. For more information and to register, please visit the symposium website. 2025 Marie Curie Research into Practice ConferenceOrganised by Marie Curie. Week commencing Monday 10 February 2025, online. More information on the conference is available here. Save the Date: Demystifying Death: Making Change HappenOrganised by Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief. 26 February 2025, Renfield Centre, Glasgow. Find out more about conference here. Registration is now open - book your place here. Further details and programme will be announced soon. Advanced European Bioethics Course: “Suffering, Death and Palliative Care”Organised by the section of Healthcare Ethics, IQ Health, Radboud university medical centre Nijmegen. Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 25-28 March 2025. For more information and to register, please visit the course website at Advanced European bioethics course ‘Suffering, Death and Palliative Care’ - IQ Health. |
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