You want to help your patients, clients and their families to have conversations and make decisions about end of life, death, and dying. How can you do this better? Courageous Honesty is what you need first. According to Zenith Virago , well known and experienced Deathwalker from the Natural Death Care Centre. ‘Courageous honesty, coming…
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People often bounce in and out of hospital in the final years of their life – up to 8 times in their last year of life alone. But why is this the case, and surely it’s not necessary? The truth is, people often don’t have the ongoing care that they would like or need in…
Hospitals and verbal communication Hospitals are a place where verbal communication goes to die. This is unfortunately a common truth – our modern health care system is incredible and helps many people every day, but it is also a place where people’s wishes can be missed in and people can become caught in the system. You…
A glossary of keywords you should know around Advance Care and end of life planning Acute pain Pain that results from something recent eg new injury or surgery Adjuvant medications Medications that are given for reasons other than solely pain relief. Advance care directive Advance care directives tell other people what the…
We know that although ageing and dying are inevitable, they can be incredibly hard. Life’s irreversible changes take a deep toll on our bodies and minds. We bring real meaning to ageing and dying But at Touchstone Life Care, we know ageing and dying can also bring real meaning and purpose. Not only to our own…
Advance Care Document, Advance Care Plan, Advance Care Directive, Health Directive, Living Will. Many of these are different names for the same thing. But what does each mean? What is an Advance Care Plan? An Advance Care Plan is a general overall term that includes any form of planning in advance, including all the above…
What is digital health care? The phrase ‘digital health care’ can sound scary. Especially when we’ve lived an entire life of having all our health care done in person. After all, the aim of medicine ought to be human-centred. But put them together to make human-centred digital healthcare and the future’s looking bright. Everyone who…
There are many ways you can help with dementia – whether for yourself or for someone close to you. We’ve collected some of the easy ones here. Tell people your wishes Decide and tell others what medical care you do and do not want early – before people need to know. Careful Advance Care Plans can…
The idea of capacity when it comes to decision making is complex. The word is not well understood, and it’s not as simple as having capacity or not having capacity. Health professionals may say someone “has” or “has not” capacity, meaning they can or cannot make decisions, yet this is often unhelpful as there are…
Working as a doctor, I have seen first hand what happens when we don’t face up to our mortality. The sad truths about hospital that no one tells you One night when I was on duty a 95 year old gentleman came into our hospital with severe flu and pneumonia. He caught the flu from…
