Compassionate Cities are communities that recognize that all natural cycles of sickness and health, birth and death, and love and loss occur everyday within the orbits of its institutions and regular activities. A compassionate city is a community that recognizes that care for one another at times of crisis and loss is not simply a task solely for health and social services but is everyone’s responsibility.
The charter is made up of a series of principles which cover a broad range of public health approaches to palliative and end of life care. It can be applied to cities and communities alike. By adoption of these principles, state institutions, workplaces, care organisations, the charitable sector and communities themselves can work together to make caring at end of life into bereavement, everyone’s responsibility, finding practical ways to help on a variety of different levels. .
The Compassionate City Charter is part of the Public Health Toolkit. The Toolkit covers the theory and practice in end of life care and is a joint document from Public Health England and the National Council for Palliative Care, written by Professor Kellehear and Aliki Karapliagkou.
Compassionate Communities Practitioners Network
Network Event Tuesday 8th November 2016, Taunton Racecourse
The programme can be viewed here and to book your free place here
Network Event Tuesday 26th July 2016, Taunton Racecourse
Presentations:
Co-creating an ecology of care - Debbie Horsfall
Developing Compassionate Communities in the South West - Julian Abel
Community development in Frome, the GP perspective - Dr Helen Kingston
Becoming a compassionate organisation - Chris Absolon
Living Well in Cornwall - Juliet Ferris
Our development plans in Plymouth - Gail Wilson
Launching the Dying Well Community Charter - Donna-Louise Laird and Warren Finney
Your plan or mine EoL Personal Health Budgets - Gina King
Further information:
The co-creating an ecology of care
Living Well information and support tools
The SW SCN on the 30th June 2015 held a work shop for champions of the charter who presented their interest in supporting and investing in a compassionate community in their area. Four areas demonstrated their vision for change:
- Bristol CCG: Homeless discharge
- BaNES (Sirona) - Village Agents and Compassionate Communities
- Plymouth (St.Lukes) - Supporting Learning Disabilities with ACP
- Swindon (Sequol) - Being a Compassionate Community
