The Forum on End of Life in Ireland was launched formally by President Mary McAleese on March 11, 2009.
Speech by President Mary McAleese Presidential speech 11.03.09.pdf (0.03 MB, Adobe PDF)
Forum 2011 was hel in Croke Park on 12 October, 2011. Plesase click Forum 2011 for details.
How did the idea for a Forum emerge?
The Irish Hospice Foundation
and the National Council on Ageing and Older People published a joint
statement proposing new initiatives to promote reform of end-of-life
care in Ireland. This followed a study and seminar which considered the
quality of care and the quality of life for older people in different
care settings.
The Irish Hospice Foundation
then inaugurated the Forum at the start of 2009. The aim was to
identify what matters most to the public on end of life from a wide
range of perspectives: social, health, economic, legislative,
administrative, educational, cultural and religious.
What did the Forum intend to achieve?
The
Forum aimed to ensure that a systematic quality approach exists within
all public services to facilitate a goo0d death when it is expected, or
can be predicted, and that supportive system are in place when death
occurs unexpectedly and traumatically.
Who engaged with the Forum?
The
Forum received written submissions and heard workshop presentations and
comments at public meetings from older people, critical illness groups,
children’s organisations, hospitals, doctors, nurses, emergency
services, disablement groups, religions, chaplains, architects,
statutory bodies, carers, nursing home interests, human rights and legal
personnel, marginalised groups, gay and lesbians, a colour consultant,
educationalists and bereavement groups, among others.
Did the Media respond to the issues?
There has been considerable media interest in the work of the Forum and the National Council.
How did the Forum go about its work?
The
Forum initially invited written submissions from organisations and
members of the public. There were 167 of these. It also ran 23 workshops
at which 108 presentations were given, mainly by organisations. Nine
public meetings were also held around the country.
These were in Dublin (2), Galway, Limerick, Cork, Dundalk, Sligo, Waterford and Tullamore.
The meetings and workshops were chaired, and had panels, involving prominent people from all sectors of society.
Recording and Consulting
All
the proceedings were compiled and written up by Bob Carroll, the former
Director of the National Council on Ageing and Older People. His Report of the Forum, and the Draft Action Plan emerging from the Report are now available on this website www.endoflife.ie
What is in the Report and Draft Action Plan?
The
Report is bulky. There is a striking diversity of identity and
perspectives of those who contributed to the proceedings of the Forum in
any way. People who engaged with the Forum had serious illnesses or
suffered bereavement; had personal experience of someone close dying;
worked in medical or other professions; many were concerned about those
and end of life because of their conviction that dying is a sacred time.
The Draft Action Plan highlighted that:
• End of life is everybody’s business
• End of life is a public health matter
• Advocacy base reform should be broadened
• Public awareness of issues has to be developed
• An end of Life Strategy is needed
• Information deficit on end of life matters needs to be tackled
• There is a need for regulation and standards setting
• National policies on palliative care need to be implemented
• Possibility of developing a distinctly Irish dimension to end of life needs top be explored
• Promotion of transparency in decision-making at end of life is needed
• There needs to be discussion on Advanced Care Directives
• An enhancement of life education and training is required
• Financial concerns at end of life need addressing
• Organisation of end of life and bereavement care is recommended.
Some of the attendance at the launch of the Forum on End of Life