EASING THE BURDEN WHILE SEARCHING FOR A CURE
June 21, 2022New director of aged care at CHA
June 22, 2022
Mark Green, Calvary’s National Director, Mission, says the I Am Living initiative encourages Australians to have open and honest conversations and engage in timely planning for palliative and end-of-life care, dying, death, loss and grief.
We all know death is a certainty, so planning for end-of-life care should be a routine part of Australians’ health planning.
But people often avoid this planning for a number of reasons including: disregard for their mortality; misinterpretation of medical advances; institutionalisation of dying and death; and misinformation and fears surrounding palliative and end-of-life care.
To help deal with the issue Calvary Health Care and its partners, Mercy Health and Catholic Cemeteries + Crematoria, launched their I Am Living public awareness initiative in May as part of Palliative Care Week.
I Am Living centres on highly intimate, authentic and educative video encounters with 11 people living with an advanced life-limiting or terminal illness.
“Essentially the initiative conveys that each and every person matters to the last moment of their life,” Mr Green says.
“Death is a certainty for us all, so planning for end-of-life care needs to become a routine part of our health planning, ideally when we are healthy.”
“I Am Living aims to expand the understanding of dying through the provision of credible information about quality end-of-life care and sharing the lived experience of people who have found life, hope and healing as they approach the end-of-life.”
I Am Living’s call to action is prompted by the question: What are you waiting for?
It encourages people to have important conversations and engage in timely planning so that they can live life to the full until they take their last breath.
Once the conversations and planning are done, people can live well in the knowledge that their end-of-life wishes and preferences are known and will be respected by the significant people in their lives and clinicians alike.
Dr Frank Brennan AM, a palliative medicine physician of Calvary Health Care in Sydney, is part of a group supporting the development of I Am Living.
“As tempting as it might be, don’t shy away from these conversations,” Dr Brennan says.
“There’s often a sense among the living that the topic of death is overly morbid and shouldn’t be talked about. But it’s good for a person facing death in the near future to be able to express their feelings, and for them to have the opportunity to share their feelings before it is too late.”
“This conversation could also, of course, occur without a serious illness. A trigger may simply be the fact that a parent is ageing and it is clear that your loved one is facing some non-life-threatening challenges.”
“Whether the conversation occurs spontaneously, or it is scheduled ahead of time, depends on the family relationships. It can be done either way, as long as it is a conversation had face to face, sitting down quietly together.”
“As you get started, you may feel like you need to leave the conversation and ensure your loved one has some normalcy for a while before continuing on,” Dr Brennan says.
To learn more, visit iamliving.org.au
For enquires, email campaign.manager@iamliving.org.au
