Shropshire's hospitals focus on end-of-life care
Shropshire's major hospitals are spending the week focussing on end of life care, as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week.
The End of Life Care Service at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (Sath), which runs the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, is taking part in a number of events throughout the week, all designed to encourage people to talk openly about death and dying.
They started the week by re-publishing a bereavement workbook, co-written by Roy Lilley, founder of the Academy of Fabulous Stuff.
It is 23 years since it was first published, and Sath’s end of life care facilitator Jules Lewis and end of life care lead volunteer Jules Lock, have helped him to update it.
The book is intended to help people find better ways to manage end of life and bereavement care.
Tomorrow, will see Ms Lewis joining BBC Radio Shropshire host Jim Hawkins on his show, where they will play a selection of songs submitted via Twitter that celebrate who we are and what we love in life and death.
Thursday will see the End of Life Care Service hosting a Dying Matters Conference at RSH.
Throughout this week, the team will also publicise ‘Taste for Pleasure’, a ground-breaking initiative that gives Nil By Mouth patients tastes of their favourite flavours as they receive end of life care.
Ms Lewis said: “The Theme for this year’s Dying Matters Awareness Week is ‘Are We Ready?’, and looks at the practical and emotional steps we all need to take to be ready for the end of our lives.
“Death and dying is very difficult to deal with, even for staff who work in hospitals, but we only have one chance to get it right for our patients and so it’s important that we can be open and frank about our feelings towards it.
“If we can all have a conversation about how we would like to be looked after and any preferences we might have when we reach the end of our lives, we can help the people who care for us to make sure we have the best possible experience."
