National Council of the Forum on End of Life – Annual Forum October 12th

‘One can survive everything nowadays, except death…‘ Oscar Wilde

Following on from its extensive public consultation during 2009 and 2010 which culminated in the publication of ‘Perspectives on End-of-Life; report of  the forum‘ the Irish Hospice Foundation’s National Council of the Forum on End-of-life in Ireland was established in July 2010 and is now engaged in a work plan based on the public consultation. Their work plan identifies a number of areas for action and among other initiatives they are currently engaged in addressing the lack of regulation in the Irish funeral industry, more details of this are available HERE 

The range of activities of the National Council of the Forum will be brought together under the theme of ‘Resilience’ at their annual seminar to be held on October 12th in Croke Park.

The annual forum will see the formal launch of the ‘Think ahead’ project, by an Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The ‘Think ahead’ initiative aims to instigate communications about end-of-life wishes and preferences in the event of serious illness or death. The programme of talks and workshops for the forum cover a broad spectrum of perspectives on death and dying including a workshop on the Medicalisation of dying by Professor Aidan Halligan (former Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England) and the Mary Holland Commemorative lecture will be delivered by author & foreign correspondent Conor O’ Cleary.

The event aims to engage participants from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines in examining the challenges of achieving a good death.

The full programme for the forum along with booking details are available HERE      

Kaleidoscope Conference 2010

Kaleidoscope, the annual palliative care conference organised by St Francis Hospice took place in Dublin Castle yesterday and today (June 2 & 3).

The conference which focuses on palliative care brought together delegates from Ireland, The UK, Australia, The USA and New Zealand.

Among the keynote speakers was Dr Michael Kearney whose address on ‘Being a healer’ drew upon greek mythology and Jungian archetypes in discussing the movement toward clinician self-awareness and fostering of the innate healing ability.  Dr David Oliviere of St Christopher’s Hospice addressed the resilience inherent to the spirit of palliative care.  Of the many speakers, a personal favourite had to be Dr Sinead Donnelly, palliative medicine consultant at Wellington Regional Hospital, New Zealand whose talk  ’The Ends of the Earth: Cultural and Social Diversity in Palliative Care’ skillfully blended her own experience of adapting to practising in New Zealand with touching, beautifully detailed accounts of patients she had treated during her time in Wellington. Dr Donnelly closed the Wednesday afternoon session with the Irish premier of her documentary ‘Going home’, an intimate portrait of four families’ personal experiences of their loved ones death. The documentary distilled both the philosophy of palliative care to enable a ‘good death’ and the central theme of the conference; to promote connection and caring in palliative care practice.

Conference presentations and handouts are available HERE . Well done to the team at st Francis Hospice for a very well organised conference

IAPC Seminar 2010 – Presentations online

Missed the Irish Association for Palliative Care’s Education and research seminar in    February? Fear not, the good people at the IAPC have made many of the research presentations availabe as webcasts so now you have a second chance to experience the day’s proceedings.

The full list of presentations are available HERE

Conference;End-Of-Life care from the Margins to the mainstream

Calling all healthcare managers, acute and community hospital and  nursing home staff, social workers, palliative, hospice and bereavement  care professionals.

The Hospice Friendly Hospitals programme, the five-year project aiming to introduce hospice friendly practices into hospital settings recently completed phase one with the conclusion of the first national audit of end of life care practice in Irish Hospitals.

Findings from the audit along with the report  ‘Quality standards for end-of-life care in Hospitals‘ will be formally launched at the conference ‘End of life care, from the margins to the mainstream’ which takes place in Clontarf Castle, Dublin on Wednesday May 19th.

The conference offers an opportunity to reflect on the audit findings, examine standards and enter into discussion about the process of bringing end-of-life care from the margins to the mainstream. As such it is of relevance to policy makers, researchers and practitioners or anyone with an interest in end-of-life care.

Full details and conference schedule are available HERE and places can be booked by emailing grace.osullivan@hospice-foundation.ie closing date for bookings is May 14th

Even more conference dates for 2010

Continuing from the previous post, here are a few more Irish conference dates to add to your 2010 calender.

4th February -Irish Association for Palliative Care (IAPC) ,Annual education & research  seminar -       Boyne Valley Hotel, Drogheda, Co Louth

• This comprehensive event addresses all aspects of palliative and hospice care in Ireland and includes a presentation on ‘Dying in Hospitals in Ireland; nurse and doctor perspectives by Dr Kieran Mc Keon, evaluation coordinator of the Hospice Friendly Hospitals programme. Programme and booking details are available HERE

23rd & 24th February – RCSI International nursing & midwifery research conference – RCSI, Dublin

• The conference features an oncology and palliative care strand this year and includes a talk by Marie Lynch, Development coordinator with the Hospice Foundation on ‘positioning palliative care within disease management programmes’. Full programme details are available HERE

2nd & 3rd June – St Francis Hospice,  Annual Kleidoscope conference  ‘connecting and caring in palliative care‘ – Dublin Castle

• The call for papers for this conference has closed but poster submissions are still being accepted. Further programme details and information on registering  for attendence at Kleidoscope is available HERE

Happy New Year – some conference dates for 2010

Time to start filling up your calender

Happy New year to all!

The cold snap may have meant a slow start to the new year for anyone buried under what passes for headline grabbing amounts of snow around here but 2010 is upon us. To help you get your calender filled up, here are a few palliative and hospice care related conferences and events to think about in the coming months.

The UK’s National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) have a packed schedule of events lined up for the first few months of the year;

Jan 28th ‘Clearer thinking on sedation‘ Prospero House, London – Presenting case evidence and current practice guidence on sedation at end of life

24th February – ‘Better investment, better dying; progress with measurement and collaborative commissioning for end of life care’ – Prospero House, London – This conference will present and expand upon the progress of the NCPC’s work with the National Audit Office and the NHS National End of life Care Programme.

-For more details and updates on other NCPC events go to their EVENTS listing page

23rd February – St Christopher’s Hospice, London ‘Improving end of life care using a competency framework’ A one day seminar on developing and improving competencies for palliative care in acute, hospital and community settings.

A little bit closer to home,  Our Lady’s Hospice in conjunction with the Irish Hospice Foundation facilitate Moving Points in Palliative Care – Crossing Boundaries – March 3rd & 4th

This conference will be hosted at Our Lady’s Hospice’s Education and Research Centre and aims to;

• Address challenges faced by health care providers in responding to palliative care needs
• Evaluate the management, planning and delivery of palliative care in various settings
• Facilitate and encourage discussion on the development of disease standards to meet the palliative care needs of patients and their families

Further details on booking can be obtained via Our Lady’s Hospice’s website and the full conference programme is downloadable HERE