(Pt1) Palliative Care Forum - ABC Radio National Video
Peter Mares hosts a forum on palliative care with Bruce Rumbold; Director of the Palliative Care Unit at La Trobe University; Molly Carlile who's a specialist in Palliative Care Nursing, Counselling and Education, the Manager of Palliative Care Services at Austin Health; and also Kim McCarthey, palliative care patient; her partner and carer, Gary Coleman.
Death is not a topic of polite conversation: it's an issue that can call up powerful emotions, particularly for those of us who have lost someone close. If we meet someone living with a terminal illness, most of us will studiously avoid mentioning funerals or talking about someone who has just died, or making any other reference to the fact that we are, indeed, mortal. Death may be inevitable and common -- after all, for as long as there has been human life on this planet there has also been human death. However, we can't experience death, we can't 'know' it, and so it often seems frightening. Most of us would hope for a 'good death', one surrounded by loved ones and at peace with ourselves and the world; but we also know that death can be messy and unpredictable, and that we can't control the exact nature of our passing. Yet we can prepare for death and many of us will be able to make choices that influence the way we spend our last weeks or months: where we live, who cares us, what kind of pain relief we receive and so on. We can only take the initiative on these matters if we talk about them first -- with our families, our friends, our communities. To mark Palliative Care Week, the National Interest has teamed up with Palliative Care Victoria to get the conversation started.
