The saying goes that it takes a village to raise a child, but the whole-community approach also rings true when it comes to the end of life.
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Warrnambool is one a small number of regions across the nation that are helping researchers learn more about what makes a compassionate community when it comes to end-of-life care – specifically looking at the unique Warrnambool and District Community Hospice model.
Hospice president Eric Fairbank said research between the Groundswell Project and the University of Western Sydney was still in its early stages. One of the hopes is that it will create more formal connections between services in the region.
“I think there are two parts to it, there’s improving people’s knowledge of death and dying and the other part to it is developing networks throughout the community, so that if someone’s dying, or someone is looking after someone who is dying, or someone’s grieving than everybody else in the community knows what to do,” Dr Fairbank said.
“It becomes not just the responsibility of the health services, but the responsibility of the whole community.
“Warrnambool was selected from about 30 organisations around the country to take part in the research, we’re the only one in Victoria and one of seven organisations around the country.”
The Compassionate Communities project was among the topic of conversation at last week’s Dying to Know Day event in Warrnambool.
Hospice manager Lu Butler said about 50 people attended a morning tea event and a sold-out end-of-life preparations workshop was held in the evening.
“People seemed really interested, they asked lots of questions,” she said of the event, which encourages people to start important conversations about end-of-life planning.
Ms Butler said more end-of-life workshops would be held at the Archie Graham Community Centre.
“Or, if organisations would like a workshop we’re happy to go out and do that as well,” she said.
The event also launched Dr Fairbank’s The Manual for Living and Dying in Style, which is also available on the Palliative Care Victoria website.
The Warrnambool and district hospice in the home program has a team of trained volunteers to support families and carers caring for their terminally-ill loved ones at home.
