Talking with Jorden helped me to understand how not to compartmentalise EDI. Advance Care Planning is about what matters most to a person, with identity and inclusivity at the very heart of care.

Find out more about EDI and planning ahead through the lens of patients, staff and systems in this fascinating conversation.

Resource mentioned in this episode

National Inclusion Week® | Inclusive Employers

Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week 2025 | NHS Employers

Hiding who I am" The reality of end of life care for LGBT people

Advance Care Planning with people from South Asian Communities

It's more than rainbows in reception

Podcasts mentioned in this episode:

The Safari Concept with Dr. Christian Ntizimira

Organ Donation with Dr Radha Sundaram

No Barriers Here

Could we start planning ahead earlier? This question is asked by Dr Sonya Bushell as part of a research study and the results have implications for us all. Listen in to find out about Sonya's research, what inspired the work and how we can shift planning ahead from a medical to a societal model.

Resource mentioned in this episode

Read Sonya's research: Attitudes to earlier advance care planning: a qualitative interview study in general practice

Find out more about the Waiting Room Revolution

Access resource from Compassion in Dying

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with you

If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

Communication underpins Advance Care Planning. But what is effective communication and how can it be taught? In my conversation with Sharan Harris-Christensen you will hear challenges, opportunities and the power of being vulnerable as we explore RealTalk.

Resource mentioned in this episode

• RealTalk: Engaging people in end of life talk - Real Talk - Real Talk
• Education with Treetops Hospice: Education and development - Treetops Hospice
• Treetops Hospice Education and Development | LinkedIn
• No Barriers Here
• LinkedIn: Sharan Harris-Christensen: Sharan Harris-Christensen - United Kingdom | Professional Profile | LinkedIn
• Contact Sharan at: [email protected]

This episode was released to celebrate Dying Matters Awareness 2026

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with you If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

Dr Emma Clare is a Chartered Psychologist, End of Life Doula, and founder of Death Wired Differently, a platform providing resources, information, and training on neuro-affirming approaches to death, dying, caregiving, and grief support. In our conversation, Emma shares why so many Advance Care Planning conversations just don't work for neurodivergent people. Want to know what does work? Listen in to hear things we need to learn and how to access great new resource.

Resource mentioned in this episode

Access the Death Wired Differently website

Previous podcast with Emma: Understanding death competency with Dr Emma Clare

Find out more and hear Emma talk at the 2026 ACP Day

Death Wired Differently

Understanding death competency with Dr Emma Clare

ACP Day Conference

The Lancet: A new vision for death and dying | The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death

Soul Paint enables people to express themselves when words are not enough Soul Paint

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

In this episode it is my pleasure to learn about the first ever national Power of Attorney Day from Alison Harvie, Power of Attorney Day campaign lead. It is a super discussion - listen in to hear about the brilliant resource available and how you can be involved.

Key messages

• Alison shares her personal story of supporting her father with advanced Alzheimer's and the impact of Power of Attorney for them.

• We explore different types and names of powers of attorney across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and why "Power of Attorney Day" is a UK–wide umbrella term covering all these legal frameworks.

• The resources for organisations include posters, slide deck with speaker notes, a toolkit, social media assets and prompts to review customer journeys.

• The resources for individuals include FAQs, myth–busting (especially around "next of kin"), a conversation starter guide, and lived–experience stories.

• We discuss the importance of normalising proactive Advance Care Planning rather than waiting for crisis or loss of capacity.

• Alison closes with a great call to arms: take small, practical first steps – any action that starts you on the path to putting a Power of Attorney in place.

Resource mentioned in episode

Access Power of ATtorney Day for resource and information

Read the report Power of Attorney, why public engagement is so low and why that matters for background information

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with you

If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

What is realistic choice and how is this supported by shared decision making?

I was privileged to ask Dr Jude Partridge, a consultant geriatrician with the POPS Team at Guys and St Thomas' hospital these questions.

Listen in to hear what the evidence tells us, how this can be operationalised and what a tremendous difference it makes.

Resource mentioned in this episode

• Making shared decision-making a reality No decision about me without me
• BRAN: helping patients ask the right questions
• Shared decision making in the Comprehensive model of personalised care
• Do Interventions Designed to Support Shared Decision-Making Reduce Health Inequalities? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
• Cost–benefit analysis of implementing comprehensive geriatric assessment enhanced shared decision making into aortic aneurysm pathways
• Preoperative clinical characteristics and 12-month outcomes following operative or non-operative management of asymptomatic aortic aneurysms
• Working together to provide the care that's right for you. Demonstrating professionalism through approach, behaviours and attitudes of Realistic Medicine
• Implementing shared decision making according to the choosing wisely programme: Perioperative medicine for older people undergoing surgery
• Effectiveness of emergency surgery for five common acute conditions: an instrumental variable analysis of a national routine database

Key messages

• Realistic choice means offering evidence‑based, tailored options that are genuinely appropriate, not an "illusion of free choice".

• Shared decision making ensures patients understand realistic options, benefits and harms, then choose based on their own values. Shared decision making is now a legal standard in the NHS personalised care model.

• Clinical encounters are power‑imbalanced, we need honest, open communication to level this.

• Decisions should follow a holistic assessment (frailty, comorbidities, cognition, function, values).

• "Just because we can, doesn't mean we have to" – non‑intervention can be the most appropriate care for a person.

• Shared decision making also means positively recommending treatment when it supports what matters most.

• Shared decision making relies on strong communication skills and data‑driven discussion of risk and outcomes.

• Evidence shows benefits for patients and systems.

• People in more deprived areas may benefit especially from shared decision making.

• There is a need for better public health messaging on realistic choice and shared decision making.

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with youIf you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

I am delighted to open the new season with Professor Jugdeep Dhesi, geriatrician and President of the British Geriatrics Society. Listen in as we explore the changing demographics of dying and the vital role geriatricians play in joining the dots in Advance Care Planning.

This episode is a personal one. I have recently experienced how easily care can become fragmented - and focus on isolated problems rather than seeing the whole person.

I am dedicating this episode to the geriatrician who chose to see the whole person - and in doing so, made all the difference. In her own words: "I am just one of many Geriatricians across the country doing this work every day. I am sure Jugdeep will agree this is 'bread and butter' geriatric medicine that the whole profession should get credit for."

Resource mentioned in this episode

Cost–benefit analysis of implementing comprehensive geriatric assessment enhanced shared decision making into aortic aneurysm pathways

Understanding variation in the management of AAA in the UK: composition and function of multidisciplinary team meetings and information resources provided to patients

Preoperative clinical characteristics and 12-month outcomes following operative or non-operative management of asymptomatic aortic aneurysms

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with you

If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

Exploring words and busting myths associated with palliative and end of life care. Over the course of 10 podcasts I am delighted to talk with Dani Ayre, we focus on a word a week and challenge commonly held beliefs. Why? Because words matter - you will hear the impact of myths around words and we'll share valuable resources.

In our final episode of this season we talk about words used when someone may be approaching the last days of life.

This episode closes the current season. I'll be back on 4th April with more fabulous guests and Conversations About Advance Care Planning.

Resource mentioned in this episode

• David Oliver: What to say when patients are "sick enough to die"
• David Oliver: Public misunderstanding, myths, and misinformation can hamper good end-of-life care
• Better End of Life Report 2024
• Hope for the Best Plan for the Rest
• Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
• The Safari Concept

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with you

If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

Exploring words and busting myths associated with palliative and end of life care. Over the course of 10 podcasts I am delighted to talk with Dani Ayre, we focus on a word a week and challenge commonly held beliefs. Why? Because words matter - you will hear the impact of myths around words and we'll share valuable resources.

In our penultimate episode, episode nine we talk about the word "pathway". Listen in and share the conversations.

Resource mentioned in this episode

• Review of Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients
• Priorities for care part of new approach to care for dying people
• Debunking Myths About Dying with Dani & Clare

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with you

If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY

In episode eight we talk about what CPR is, and when it might be considered an inappropriate treatment.

Listen in and share the conversations.

For information about Advance Care Planning, see the Advance Care Planning Explained resource on my website

Find out more about how I can work with you

If you are a team looking to provide better end of life care, or set up a one off or complete education programme in end of life care head to www.speakformelpa.co.uk where I provide details on how I can help you. You will also find information about my Lasting Power of Attorney consultancy and the talks I offer for organisations.

If you enjoy the episode or learn something new, please consider buying me a coffee to go towards making more valuable podcasts: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/6nQVJqVgLY