World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is an international day of recognition, observed on the second Saturday of October, to advocate for compassionate care for people with life-limiting illnesses.
Worldwide, it focuses on improving the quality of life by promoting access to hospice and palliative care services.
Julianne said birth and death were the bookends of life, and life is what happens in between.
World Hospice Day gives people the opportunity to shift their lens from the traditionally taboo topic of death to a more optimistic viewpoint.
“We spend so much time planning for pregnancy and birth, giving a lot of focus on the first 1000 days of a young person's life, but we don't do the same at the end of life.”
“We spend so much time planning for pregnancy and birth, giving a lot of focus on the first 1000 days of a young person's life, but we don't do the same at the end of life,” Julianne said.
“They're both incredibly emotional, life-changing bookends that we need to focus on.
“How are we thinking about palliative care, the end of our lives, and planning to do it well?”
Julianne said palliative care and hospice is not just about dealing with tragedy when it happens, but having an open, positive approach to preparing for us not to be here before it happens.
“Having an optimistic lens on palliative care and hospice is something we all should be doing,” she said.
“We all should be preparing for not being here – what is our succession plan, who do we talk to, who knows what our values are, who knows what matters in our lives, and do we record this?
“This day is about encouraging families to have conversations around what matters; about their children, their older folk, their own values in life, and we're trying to encourage people to find a way of initiating these conversations.
“This ties into our ‘death café’, which we'll be running across Rutherglen, Chiltern, and Corowa.
“They're happening nationally and around the world to encourage conversations and give families and individuals key questions, thoughts, and teachable moments.”
A death café is a scheduled non-profit get-together for the purpose of talking about death over food and drink, usually tea and cake.
Amaranth’s first death café has been scheduled to fall on All Souls Day on November 2 this year, a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed observed by Christians.
To find out more about Amaranth’s All Souls Day death café event and their upcoming end-of-life initiative, Project Hummingbird, which starts in February, visit them at the Federation Community Expo on October 15 at Bangerang Park, or go to the Amaranth website.
