Hospital Palliative Care at the End of Life
“Death is terrifying”, writes the author Susan Cheever, “…because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time”. Continue reading
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Dr Suresh Kumar pays tribute to a friend of the same name
We don’t often post pieces of this kind on our blog, but I was so struck by the simplicity of this tribute when I read it, that I asked its writer if we could post it here. Dr Suresh Kumar, a good friend to our group and active collaborator, is well known for his work… Continue reading
New ESRC-Funded Project “Dying in the Margins” Investigates How Socio-Economic Deprivation Effects End of Life Experiences and Ability to Die at Home
We are all aware of the headlines about the impact of government austerity measures on communities up and down the UK. But what impact has austerity had on people’s experiences of dying and, specifically, their ability to die in their own home? What is it like to be facing death in materially constrained circumstances in… Continue reading
“Island” – A Screening of the Documentary Film
Authors: Julie Lang, Dr Sheri Mila Gerson, Dr Sarah Pickstock (Consultant, Palliative Medicine, NHS Dumfries and Galloway) Steven Eastwood’s powerful documentary film Island was screened at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary as a part of Dying Matters Week. This was a collaborative event between the academic community of the End-of-Life studies Group and the clinical staff… Continue reading
From Health Care to Humanities: A Retirement Project
I had spent forty years as a physiotherapist in the NHS and my retirement was looming unplanned when I decided, during my final working year, to apply for the University of Glasgow access course. I discovered that my previous academic qualifications, outwith a four-year limit, didn’t count, and that my MSc, that had researched a… Continue reading
Tears and Laughter at Thomas Tosh: a Death Café Experience
My now regular route from Clydeside to Dumfries takes me by motorway to within twenty miles of my destination, the University of Glasgow’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies, where I am a PhD student, linked with the End of Life Studies Group. I am researching how writers depict physician-assisted death, and suicide. Today I was pleased… Continue reading
My PhD Journey
By Stephen Greenhalgh For the last 13 years I have been working as the Chief Executive of St Catherine’s Hospice in Lancashire. Having had a varied career prior to that in the Army, Church of England, RAF, NHS and Local Government the hospice role came as an unexpected turn in the road and yet, from… Continue reading
Palliative care in Southern Brazil: Cicely Saunders, legacy, and lighthouse
I started to study palliative care in 2008, motivated by personal reasons. Today there are social media, TV programmes, podcasts, and many other ways to spread the message about the need for palliative care. In 2008 that wasn’t the reality at all. I think the first time I had contact with the Dame Cicely Saunders’… Continue reading