It is a rare experience in an academic career to carry out a project with a simple research question, to publish the findings and then to find there is unprecedented interest from many quarters. That was how things worked out with our study of the imminence of death among a national cohort of hospital inpatients,… Continue reading
The grandeur of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh’s interior faded in the background as friendly smiles, warm handshakes and engaging conversations over teas and coffees filled the room giving a great ambience for the start of the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference 2015. The astonishing range of professions represented displayed the… Continue reading
Professor David Clark has given evidence to the Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee inquiry on palliative care. The full text of his written report International comparisons in palliative care provision: What can the indicators tell us? is now available. As Wellcome Trust Investigator on the Global Interventions at the End of Life research project… Continue reading
The night is black all around. The ‘supermoon’ is rising over the loch behind us. The damp air is on our backs. But our faces are warmed by the fire. The talk, drifting over the flames, is about mortality. This is the EAFS ‘off grid’ environmental festival, where artists, writers, makers and dreamers of dreams… Continue reading
The public has responded to a call for views on the state of palliative care in Scotland, and with the publication of these submissions the Scottish Parliament Inquiry into Palliative Care is making rapid progress. I am struck by two things: the great variety of these responses, but also the rather low volume. Perhaps that tells… Continue reading
These are important times for palliative and end of life care in Scotland, and with an ongoing parliamentary inquiry into palliative care we are all eager to see what the outcomes will be. But first we must all play our part. I am already involved as the Consulting Editor in the production of the Scottish… Continue reading
In this short video presentation I discuss what we know about ways to identify people who are in the last year of their life or who might have palliative care needs. I start by setting out the global context, showing how many people in the world currently die every year, and explaining why this is… Continue reading
There is lots of interest in deaths cafés right now. As part of our research project Global Interventions at the End of Life we are examining death cafés as a ‘cultural intervention’ – how they have come about, who organises and attends them, what part they may play in wider discourses about death and dying… Continue reading
