Launch of National Palliative Care Awareness Week

In Australia it was National Palliative Care Awareness Week from May 22nd to May 28th.
This week is conducted each year in an attempt to raise awareness of Palliative Care in the community. This year’s theme was “Partners in Caring” and in Melbourne we had a wonderful launch at the BMW Edge at Federation Square. Officially launched by the Hon Daniel Andrews, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and conducted by Palliative Care Victoria (PCV) the launch included a key address by Mr Charles “Bud” Tingwell A.M. . ‘Bud” spoke about his experiences caring for his wife before she died and of his experiences as an international actor of acclaim.
“Bud” not only gave a wonderful presentation, but to the excitement of all in attendance, he mingled with the audience during the breaks, talking and signing autographs.

Other inspiring presentations were given by Prof Allan Kellehear, Chair of Palliative Medicine at LaTrobe University, Mr Kelvin King from Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health organisation (VACCHO), Ms Carol Quayle from Paediatric Palliative Care Program and Mr Russell Deal from publishers, Innovative Resources.

Oh, and I gave a presentation on my children’s book, “Jelly Bean’s Secret” and how it can be used by parents, friends, teachers and health workers to initiate discussions about death with the children they care for.

All in all it was a great day and all who attended were provided with food for sustenance and “food for thought”!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2005 at 1:48 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.