Since it was first published in 2008, and then updated in 2013, the ‘world map’ of palliative care development has attracted the interest of advocacy people, policy makers and fellow researchers. It remains the only attempt to assess the level of palliative care development in every sovereign state recognised by the United Nations. Results of… Continue reading
People with life-limiting illnesses report exceptionally high rates of psychosocial and existential suffering in conjunction with bodily pain. Cicely Saunders famously conceptualized this cumulative distress as ‘total pain’. As you may already know, we’re pretty interested in total pain around here. Professor David Clark has written extensively about it (see here for an overview), and… Continue reading
In the 2017-2018 academic year, myself, Dr Naomi Richards, and Dr Elizabeth Reeder held a series of reading and writing workshops centered around the topic of death and dying. We each facilitated a couple of workshops. A fellow PhD student, Solveiga Zibaite also facilitated a workshop. They brought together a diverse group of people all… Continue reading
This week I was delighted to receive a letter seeking permission for the little book Watch with Me to be translated into Slovenian. Publication of the new edition next year will mean Watch with Me has been translated into six languages. More could be on the way. The continuing interest in the book is its… Continue reading
When our Japanese colleagues arrived in Scotland in early spring for the launch of a new collaborative research project, I was delighted to see the interest they took in the cherry blossom that was starting to appear around our Dumfries campus. As our week together unfolded, the beauty of the trees appeared to match the… Continue reading
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
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
We present three events in Dumfries and Galloway to initiate The Mitori Project, a new research collaboration focussed on end of life issues in the UK and Japan. Hirobumi Takenouchi, Haruka Hikasa, Yoshinori Takata, and Miho Tanaka will join us at the University of Glasgow, Dumfries Campus for the first project workshop, and we have also curated… Continue reading
