It is not uncommon to refer to the United States as the most ‘death denying’ culture in the world. As one wag observed, ‘Americans don’t die, they just under achieve’. Certainly America spends unprecedented amounts on health care in the last year of life – apparently in search of life extension, but often it seems… Continue reading
I have known and worked with Dr Carlos Centeno since we first met at a conference of the EAPC in Geneva in 1999. Over the years, and as our friendship has grown, we have mainly collaborated on studies associated with the EAPC European Atlas of Palliative Care. Recently, Carlos has established the ATLANTES research programme… Continue reading
I like small scale but clever gadgets. Personal favorites are a 1950s wall hung hand coffee grinder and a steam driven stove top expresso pot. They are human scale technologies. While I gain much from the daily exertion they require, the longer I use them, the more I like to think I am paying my… Continue reading
I recently successfully defended my PhD thesis at the University of Glasgow. This post is about my study in the palliative care field, and reflects upon my experience as a researcher in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies/Institute of Health and Wellbeing. I undertook my PhD as a part-time student whilst practising as a solicitor in… Continue reading
I am old enough to be called “one of the pioneers of palliative care” but serious amnesia has not yet set in (so far as I remember)! I can recall much from those pioneering days, including the hours spent trying to devise comprehensive definitions so that, as we told each other “people will come to… Continue reading
Four months ago our organisation, the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care (SPPC) created a space on the web where anyone could post a brief message of remembrance about dead loved ones who remain important to them. Little by little, day by day, non-virally, that space has grown into a powerful reminder of the diversity and… Continue reading
I have been on the phone for the past hour to a journalist writing an article on Death Cafés and the movement to get people talking about death. Is this, she asked, because death in our society is repressed? Is there a taboo against talking about it? “No,” I answered, “if we need to talk… Continue reading
This post is written from Scotland, to celebrate World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2014. My purpose is to highlight the need for services for frail older people as they face the end of their lives. I think few of us are aware that the over 80-year age group is currently the only part of… Continue reading
