Great Lives is a much-loved biographical programme on Radio 4, the BBC’s current affairs and factual radio network. I have often listened to Great Lives at home or in the car and always enjoy the choice of subject, the perspectives of the contributors and the ideas that flow between them. At the time of writing this… Continue reading
If, like me, you are a citizen of the global North, the statistical probability is that you–after a protracted illness–will spend your last days and die in an acute-care hospital. Increasingly, a good death in these institutions calls for a specific form of medical expertise–palliative care. As a medical anthropologist, one of my main research… Continue reading
What can ethnographic research contribute to our understanding of palliative care in institutional settings? In this podcast, medical anthropologists Dr Marian Krawczyk and Dr Shahaduz Zaman compare their experiences of undertaking hospital ethnographies in Western Canada and in Bangladesh. They talk about the challenges and strengths of ethnography, and discuss the ethical issues of undertaking… Continue reading
When I first became seriously interested in the life and works of Cicely Saunders, back in 1995, I asked Dame Cicely for a copy of her CV. I noticed and was duly impressed that there were even a half-dozen publications listed from the decade before St Christopher’s Hospice opened, in 1967. I had no idea… Continue reading
Santiago Corrêa writes about his community palliative care project Estar ao Seu Lado (We are by your side) in the south of Brazil. In Portuguese followed by a version in English. O Projeto Estar ao Seu Lado é desenvolvido no município de Rio Grande ao sul do Brasil. A população atendida pela nossa equipe é… Continue reading
I followed community palliative care volunteer Samina through a maze of narrow, crowded alleyways to visit the invisible world of Korail, Bangladesh’s secret slum. Home to an estimated 200,000 people, Korail remains largely uncharted territory. Mapping giants Google show no record of its existence, even though the slum’s population is greater than many UK cities.… Continue reading
What challenges are there in exhibiting art which has used to help terminally ill patients and their relatives? Nadia Collette, art therapist and curator of Inner Light, talks about the project which resulted in an exhibition in Barcelona in the first half of 2016. This interview was a French-English collaboration, and the blog begins with a translation, followed by… Continue reading
I’ve visited many hospices over the years so there’s a sense of familiarity about them, but amongst the ‘pattern recognition’ there’s always a unique feature that jumps out, grabbing the attention. No matter how much one believes rationally in the ‘main-streaming’ of palliative care into the whole healthcare system, there is still something about the individuality of hospice… Continue reading
