Event: Rethinking end of life accompaniment in the light of Covid-19
Date: Monday 28 September 2020
Time: 6.30pm – 7.30pm
Venue: Online
An online roundtable chaired by LBC’s Shelagh Fogarty for anyone with a professional or personal interest in end of life care and companionship.
Join palliative care scholars, practitioners and end of life companions at a virtual roundtable to consider how accompaniment has changed in the light of Covid-19 and what this might mean for the future of end of life care.
At a time when so much seems to have changed, the fundamental priorities of holistic care remain the same; we still aim to accompany the dying with humanity, compassion tailored to their individual needs and the needs of their families. The pandemic experience has challenged our creativity to add new tools to the toolkit.
Now the task is to continue that same high standard of companionship, based on the same strong foundations and open to further creativity and development using the new tools of experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conversation Topics
- End of life accompaniment – the traditional model – practices we would hope to hold on to and return to.
- The Covid-19 experience. What have we learned? How have we changed? How can new approaches to end of life accompaniment be integrated into future care in the new normal and in the event of future Covid lockdowns or another pandemic? How could we be better prepared?
- Can anyone be an end of life companion? What are the key qualities for clinicians, volunteers, lay people? And what are the differences? Informing our natural skills, understanding our limitations.
- What does the future of end of life companionship look like?
Questions
Participants are encouraged to send in questions to the panel at the time of registration. The webinar will be live-streamed Zoom and recorded.
The Chair – LBC’s Shelagh Fogarty
Roundtable Participants
Dr Kathryn Mannix – Palliative Care Physician and author of ‘With the End in Mind’.
Baroness llora Finlay – Welsh doctor, professor of palliative medicine, and an Independent Crossbench Member of the House of Lords, and a member of the APHG.
Dr Lynn Bassett – Retired Healthcare Chaplain in Acute and Palliative settings.
Gazala Makda – End of Life Doula, Care and Occupational Therapy Expert Witness.
The Host: The Centre for the Art of Dying Well at St Mary’s University.
Rethinking the art of accompaniment at the end of life. Public engagement, policy, research – death, dying and bereavement. www.artofdyingwell.org
“I think that there are things we are doing now which will transform for the good how we offer care forever at the end of this epidemic.”
Dr Kathryn Mannix