Re-claiming of Ageing, Dying, and Grieving
In 8 weeks, 300 people from around the world will gather to discuss the Re-claiming of Ageing, Dying, and Grieving.
...and it's happening right here in Australia.
We are welcoming researchers, health professionals and changemakers to come together to talk about dying...so what can you expect? Well, the academics and health professionals will talk like social change provocateurs, the changemakers will talk like students of research and the gathering will be like no other you've experienced (if death and dying is your interest!) When I was in Canada for the Public Health Palliative Care Conference in 2017, I found myself surrounded by friends because we all shared the same vision. These are people who are deeply curious, are great conversationalists, with pretty much zero 'industry' speak because their humanity is stronger than their jobs. There were lots of real-life explanations of what changes systems and great explanations of how to work with others to be empowering.
Now it's our turn to host this gathering, in partnership with Western Sydney University. Our theme is "Compassionate Communities in Action: Re-Claiming Ageing, Dying and Grieving" and it's taking place on 13 - 16th October in the Blue Mountains, NSW.
Public Health Palliative Care (PHPC) as a title doesn't do well to capture the social movement that is taking place, especially in the West, however PHPC is a broad church and all the people with whom I have interacted with through the international network are heart-smart and deeply committed to making a difference to others. Most importantly, their efforts truly help us all. Those that work for social change in dying, like us at GroundSwell, are communitarians. And boy do we need our community when facing death.
We're co-hosting the gathering this year in Leura, NSW on 13-16 October with Western Sydney University. It's chaired by changemaker academics Dr Kerrie Noonan and Professor Debbie Horsfall. We have around 5% of tickets left before we sell out so I'd recommend you think now about whether to join us or not. The conference will be infused with an arts program, bloody great people, an amazing program full of the latest evidence and practice from around the world which you can check out here
See you there!