With the rate of volunteering declining within the palliative care sector, and the demand for volunteer services at an all time high, the need for community assistance in building personalised final arrangements and removing the stigma surrounding end of life planning will be essential for a dignified death.
But how do volunteers assist through an individual’s journey within healthcare and palliative care?
Simply put, volunteers offer invaluable support to palliative care patients and their families, creating a journey where dignity, comfort and compassion are paramount. Dying 2 Know Day builds on these mechanisms and compassionate communities and personalising final arrangements: removing stigma surrounding end of life planning.
Volunteers offer companionship and create an opportunity for people to live well until they die, prepare for death, and experience a good death. Through mechanisms of reminiscing, preserving dignity and ease of suffering, volunteers go beyond the standarised version of care – achieving a presence of ‘being with’ rather than ticking the ‘doing for’ checkbox.
Hummingbird House Clinical Nurse Facilitator, Yody Espitia said that as the number of palliative care-related hospitalisations increase as the population ages, volunteers are needed to assist.
‘Everyone deserves a dignified death. As nurses and health professionals age into retirement, volunteers are needed for holistic patient care and a compassionate ear. It’s not just the clinical management of administering medications, procedures and tasks, volunteers provide a personal approach that may be missed by routine.’
‘It’s rewarding for the volunteers too.’
For Dying 2 Know Day 2024 Palliative Care Queensland partnered with Hummingbird House and screened a showing of Live the Life You Please, a feature film of incredible stories about death and dying captured all around Australia.
The event began with discussions on the rooftop of Hummingbird House as the sun set. Engaging conversations on differing cultures and their view on death, leading on to a Q and A on topics such as how would talking about death improve the end-of-life experience and what needs to change to ensure all Australians have access to palliative care and related services? All thought provoking questions that delved deeper into understanding why death is still a taboo subject.
The film itself was incredibly heart wrenching, humorous and insightful. To experience a film of this magnitude is incredibly rewarding.
Every single human deserves to live their life until their last. Assisting Queenslanders with with access to quality palliative care that’s holistic and encompasses the individual’s social, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs leads to better outcomes and a dignified death.
More information about Palliative Care
- QLD’s 5.3 million population in 2023 is expected to swell to between 6.8 million and 9.8 million by 2071.
- QLD’s death rate has increased by more than 20% in the last 10 years, to over 38,000 in 2023.
- Around 75% people die an expected death and might benefit from palliative care (1) that’s over 28,000 people in QLD each year
- More than 6,800 people receive palliative care services in QLD in each six- month period (2)
