Compassionate Communities

6/22/2022

Hi everyone, Yvonne Heath here back in the LYLTD studio after a whirlwind trip to Ottawa. Wow, it was amazing, Compassionate Ottawa held an event, and they had the incredible Dr. Allan Kellehear as their guest speaker, speaking about compassionate communities and compassionate cities. It is, in my opinion, the movement to create social change, where we learn how to just show up for one another in life, grief, illness, at end of life, in whatever we may be facing.

It is everyone's responsibility to care for each other during times of crisis and loss, and not simply the task of health care professionals. The wonderful thing is that we can make a difference in illness in grief, we don't always need professionals, they are part of the journey
.
Please visit the Pallium Canada website and you will see that they have graphs and information that will help you to truly understand that in illness in the dying process, our health care professionals will be a part of our journey less than 20%. Dr. Kellehear has another quote that I just have to share. He states:

When we are dying, or grieving 95% of our time
will be spent with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors,
including our pets and online communities.

So in doing the math... it feels like an aha moment, as we realize that those who are dying, are spending only about 5% of their time in front of health care professionals. What are we doing with that 95%? We need to increase community's capacity to just show up throughout life, grief, illness and end of life.

Thank you Compassionate Ottawa with all my heart for hosting this incredible event! The honorable Sharon Carstairs also shared her words of wisdom, and be an advocate for palliative care and help us to truly understand that is also our community's responsibility.

And my dear friend, Bonnie Tompkins, thank you for Just Showing Up and reconnecting. It was great to see you in person and to introduce us to Allan... I now say Alan, because he's my new best friend!!

If you wanted to learn more, and I invite you to go to pallium.ca to learn about compassionate communities because we can do this differently. Together.