Irish Hospice Foundation is proud to be contributing to an ongoing all-Ireland Compassionate Communities research project, with the aim of addressing the changing healthcare and wellbeing needs across the island of Ireland.
This work is funded through the Shared Island Civic Society Fund from the Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland and Northern Ireland Public Health Agency, in partnership with the All Ireland Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care, Foyle Hospice, and Irish Hospice Foundation.
As part of the project, the position paper Fostering Compassionate Communities: A Call to Transform Caregiving, Dying, Death and Grieving on the Island of Ireland was developed. As explained in this position paper:
“Across the island of Ireland, the role of caring for people through serious illness, dying, death and grief was once widely recognised as being centred in the community. However, as palliative and end-of-life care services have advanced to make significant improvements in quality of life for individuals with serious illness and their families, society has come to view responsibility for death and dying as primarily that of healthcare professionals. This shift has led to communities feeling less confident, knowledgeable, and prepared to provide compassionate support around end of life.”
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland share an identical challenge:
“The death rate is expected to more than double across the island of Ireland in the next twenty years, coupled with an increase in the number of people dying at home. Many people with serious illness and their families already lack the support they need, and this gap is likely to widen in future. To achieve the highest quality and continuity of care, we argue that entire communities should be empowered to take the lead in caring for people around the end-of-life, supported by our specialist and generalist palliative care services and wider civic society. To this end, we believe that a compassionate-communities approach is urgently needed to transform how we experience life and death on the island of Ireland.”
The position paper defines the Compassionate Communities approach as one in which “caregiving, dying, death and grief are shared responsibilities of the whole community” and provides examples and case studies of existing compassionate communities.
Central to the examples provided is the work of Irish Hospice Foundation’s Arts and Cultural Engagement team, including our Compassionate Culture Network projects, recent Seed Grant projects on Arts in Residential Care, and other projects currently supported by Creative Ireland being developed by Local Authorities in Cavan, Fermanagh, Mayo, Roscommon and Northside Cork. At the heart of our Arts and Cultural Engagement programme is a commitment to working with communities, creatively building a bridge between their existing assets and professional supports.
The position paper also offers a snapshot of the key challenges and opportunities for fostering compassionate communities across the island of Ireland. The key findings include:
- Compassionate-communities initiatives need to be recognised as creating the environment for meaningful education, social awareness raising and open dialogue.
- A considered community development approach is essential to ensure local voices and needs are prioritised and sustainable change is achieved.
- Engagement from civic society across the island of Ireland is needed to embed policies and support around caregiving, dying, death and grief within all our key institutions.
Read the Compassionate Communities Position Paper.
