A new report has just appeared from the excellent Atlantes team at the University of Navarra in Spain. It sets out a detailed description of the development in Europe of palliative medicine as a field of specialisation. This is a challenging issue to study, in a context where modes of accreditation, licensing and associated procedural… Continue reading
Very soon Dame Barbara Monroe will retire after a tremendous term of office as Chief Executive at St Christopher’s Hospice in South London – and many years there before that as a practising social worker. The event set me thinking about the early origins of St Christopher’s and some of the factors that shaped its… Continue reading
This week I want to focus on a recent blogpost by the sociologist Yasmin Gunaratnum, about the values we place on differing deaths. I was drawn to Yasmin’s piece at a time when, like many others I was trying to make sense of the rape and murder of two young Dalit girls in India. Yasmin’s… Continue reading
I am working on a new book at the moment, entitled To Comfort Always: A history of palliative medicine from the nineteenth century. In the opening chapter, I try to tease out some of the approaches to pain relief that were developing during the Victorian period in Britain. It is a fascinating trajectory. As the… Continue reading
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
