Compassionate communities
For further information or to discuss the project, contact Debbie Hall, 01642 342778, or email d.a.hall@tees.ac.uk.
A project to create a compassionate community approach to death and dying has been launched at the University.
And Teesside is the first area in the country to implement the plan to use public health approaches to transform end of life services.
The Compassionate Communities project was developed following the North East’s 25 year public health strategy Better Health, Fairer Health, published in 2008.
The strategy specifies ten themes, each now supported by a Regional Advisory Group to drive forward change. One of the ten theme groups is ‘A Good Death’, which advocates public health approaches to the end of life. It is neither cost effective or desirable to see death as the province of clinical medicine. Within the North East of England, the aim was to:
‘Establish a charter for end of life care, with a statement of the rights and entitlements that should be honoured both for the individual preparing for death, and for their carers and families. This should relate not only to medical and nursing care, but to the behaviours of all agencies and sectors who deal with these issues.’
A Charter was produced by the Regional Advisory Group in collaboration with patients and their carers. It has been the subject of extensive local consultation and the project has now started at the University, where there is a real opportunity to make a difference.
Download the charter (pdf - 45kb)
The Compassionate Communities project will implement the charter for ‘A Good Death’, Compassion at the end of life, stress the need to normalise death, build public health capacity and aim to create a compassionate community approach to end of life.
Dr Bruce Rumbold, International Visiting Academic from La Trobe University, Australia, gave a masterclass and lecture on public health approaches to palliative care at the University.
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Teesside University's Steve Conway and Lisa Briggs, together with the North East Strategic Health Authority organised a workshop on health promotion, death, dying and loss.
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In establishing a dedicated Compassionate Communities unit at Teesside, we will be the first area in the country to implement a plan to use public health approaches to transform end of life services, with an opportunity to establish the North East as an innovative test bed for charter ideas. Key actions for the project include:
- mapping existing public health at end of life activity in the Tees Valley and identifying good practice, along with developing strategies for sharing and publicising of these examples
- undertaking profile raising activities around the Charter approach
- focusing on changing Human Resources policies on leave for carers and the bereaved amongst major Teesside employers
- identifying need in both professional and community settings for training in public health at end of life issues, and then developing and delivering that training
- raising awareness in schools of public health at end of life
- developing networks for patient and carer support between community/third sector groups and mainstream service providers in selected localities within the Tees Valley.
Community development workers attached to the project will take the Charter to existing community groups and settings to work with participants in exploring needs and views and raising awareness of end of life issues.
They will discuss ways to facilitate death education, increase awareness in the community of end of life issues and build community capacity to support end of life care. They will also help in identifying training needs amongst sectors of the community and stimulate the public in debate about death and dying.
A project looking at how Human Resource policies can support a Compassionate Community approach to end of life has recently been completed. A copy of the Executive Summary and full report can be found here.
- Executive Summary HR study (pdf - 427KB)
- HR Policies Report Final (pdf - 1 MB)
For further information or to discuss the project, contact Debbie Hall, 01642 342778, or email d.a.hall@tees.ac.uk.
