Joel Whilesmith and Max Nixon from MLHD with residents, Bettsy White and Linda Curren who say last week’s event started the conversation around dying.
The lighter side of palliative care and voluntary assisted dying was presented by Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHB) last Friday, showing that end-of-life plans don’t have to be the dark and foreboding taboo topics they were in the past and they can and should be spoken about openly.
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Hosted at Corowa Country Women’s Association (CWA) on River St to a crowd of more than 50 people, the annual Dying to Know Day event discussed the entire end-of-life process, from setting up a will all the way through to organising the funeral.
Corowa resident Bettsy White said she learned a lot from attending the event and is considering becoming a palliative care volunteer.
“There is a multitude of help available, from controlling symptoms through to voluntary assisted dying.”
“I was an excellent presentation; it starts the discussion about end-of-life,” Bettsy said.
“There is a multitude of help available, from controlling symptoms through to voluntary assisted dying.
“You're not on your own, and even though volunteers are only visiting, you've got a palliative care system set up and rooms in the hospital; it's nice to know they are there.
“We’ll take what we've learned and disseminate it through the community, so we’re not just coming to the meeting, we also go out and talk about it.”
About 50 residents attended last week’s Dying to Know Day event to help normalise conversations about death and dying.
MLHB presenter Max Nixon said the great and fun thing about Dying to Know Day is the chance to challenge public myths about death, dying and planning, and make it as normal as possible.
“There’s no singular way of doing end-of-life care,” Max said.
“This is one of the enjoyable things about palliative care as a social worker.
“We can be quietly considerate about what our situations are and feel more confident about the road ahead.
“Today we had a few key players speaking about what happens as we walk alongside people as they age, get unwell, and as they enter into end-of-life care.”
Dying to Know Day is Australia’s national day for open conversations about death, dying and grief, held every year on August 8.
It began in 2013 and has grown into a nationwide movement encouraging people to discuss and plan their end‑of‑life wishes.
Corowa CWA president Anne Wescott said normalising these kinds of conversations was important and having a national day to recognise this was a great way to make those conversations more open and easier to have.
“Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in particular is a controversial topic,” Anne said.
“The laws are different between the state and federal governments.
“Anthony Albanese is trying to make it available via telehealth, because there are people out in the middle of nowhere who can't get to a doctor to access VAD, but there are concerns about coercion with this.
“We are an aging community, so we need to know about these things.”
MLHD encourages anyone with questions about palliative care or VAD to contact their doctor for information about the services available to make this stage of their or a loved one’s life easier.
