Last week I gave a lecture at the University of Navarra on the life, the work and the legacy of Cicely Saunders. The lecture focused in particular on the religious and spiritual journey that Cicely Saunders made over a personal and professional lifetime and how it paralleled her work in hospice and palliative care. I… Continue reading
A striking feature of the nineteenth century ‘turn’ towards institutional care for the dying – which led to the first homes and hospices specifically for that purpose – is the central role played by religiously and philanthropically inspired women. These individuals operated across countries and continents, but as far as we can tell, were not linked… Continue reading
Labouring in the fields of academia can so often result in a product that is consumed only by a few like minded folk. So it can be quite a surprise when our efforts resonate widely with a larger community of interest. On 17 March we published our paper on Imminence of death in hospital patients … Continue reading
Some time ago a colleague of mine in Ireland, Eugene Murray, then CEO of the Irish Hospice Foundation, raised the idea of whether it was possible to work out what proportion of people in hospital at any one time are in the last year of life. Knowing the figure, he argued, would assist in advocacy… Continue reading
Terminal illness, dying and death are often difficult words to hear and they can fill a lot of people with fear. Yet mortality is an inescapable part of life. So, why is it that so many of us are afraid to talk about it? This month Marie Curie has published a report, Difficult conversations with… Continue reading
The USA is the only country in the world that has developed a full scale ‘for profit’ system specifically to provide care in the last months of life. This hospice ‘industry’ has expanded considerably in recent years and generated significant financial surpluses for shareholders in the process. It is attracting a lot of interest… Continue reading
Providing care for people at the end of life is now a pressing humanitarian issue for the 21st century. Yet it is also becoming the focus of divided opinion, conflicting professional standpoints, disagreements about the quality and significance of clinical evidence, and competing models of care delivery. Meanwhile population ageing, changing patterns of mortality and… Continue reading
