Welcome to Thursdays@3 our regular series of conversations with people living and working at the end of life.

Today we are spending some time with Jonathan Muller, and Community Brain Cancer Navigator with the Peace of Mind Foundation, Jonathon has also worked as a palliative care nurse.

More information and show notes:

• Peace of Mind Foundation website - HERE

• Advocacy on gaps between NDIS and healthcare systems - HERE

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 whether thats via PCA socials or Spotify, and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Today a conversation about the leading cause of death in Australia – heart disease, and work to improve the end-of-life experiences of people with end stage heart disease.

Dr Gursharan Singh is a Research Fellow in Palliative Care within the Cancer and Palliative Care Outcomes Centre at the School of Nursing, at Queensland University of Technology.

Her work has influenced and changed models of care, particularly within Queensland Heath, and in 2023 Dr Singh was nominated as the Emerging Researcher of the Year at the National Palliative Care Awards.

Show notes and more info:

• Dr Gursharan Singh, profile and publications - HERE

• Cancer and Palliative Care Outcomes Centre - HERE

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 whether that’s via PCA socials or Spotify and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Welcome to Thursdays@3 our regular series of conversations with people living and working at the end of life.

Today, we head across the ditch to speak with our friends at Hospice New Zealand, the CEO is Wayne Naylor.

Wayne came to the CEO role after a long career in nursing including as a Director of Nursing, a Clinical Nurse Specialist, and a Nurse Lecturer.

Show notes and more info:

• Hospice New Zealand website - HERE

• Hospice New Zealand Conference, 4 to 5 November - HERE

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 whether that’s via PCA socials or Spotify, and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Welcome to a brand new season of Thursdays@3!

A big conversation today, with one of Australia’s biggest and most respected creators.

But also, someone who has been pushing health systems, pushing health policy, and pushing our society to confront dying and death for a long time – inspired by the death of his beloved dad Kit Denton in 1997.

It’s a passion that in 2016 led him to establish ‘Go Gentle Australia’ - a charity working to promote choice at the end of life, including the option of voluntary assisted dying.

Click play to join the conversations with the one and only Andrew Denton.

Show notes and more information:

• Go Gentle Australia

• State of VAD Report

• Palliative Care and Voluntary Assisted Dying PCA Position Statement 2022

• Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia – PCA Guiding Principles for those providing care to people living with a life-limiting illness

• ‘People of Palliative Care’ series - The many nuances of VAD and palliative care with Dr Danielle Ferraro, Dr Frank Brennan and Nicky Stitt.

• Andrew Denton’s ‘Better Off Dead’ podcast

• Andrew Denton’s ‘The Damage Done’ book

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 whether that’s via PCA socials or Spotify, and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Welcome to Thursdays@3 our regular series of conversations with people living and working at the end of life.

We have had some big conversations in this season, we take that up a notch today with a man who has spent his life advocating for children. Sir Albert Aynsley-Green has over forty years’ experience working with governments and organisations worldwide – being a voice for children.

He was the first Children’s Commissioner for England, has been a Clinical Lecturer in adult and paediatric medicine at the University of Oxford, and is the bestselling author of ‘The British Betrayal of Childhood’.

In 2006 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to children and young people, and just recently was appointed the first, and so far, only Professor in Compassionate Care in the UK, through Northampton University.

Underpinning his work and passion is his own personal story through childhood and in more recent times, the death of his beloved life partner Rosemary.

Click play and join Al’s “momentum for compassion.”

More information and show notes:

• Aynsley-Green’s key publications on compassion - HERE

• ‘The British Betrayal of Childhood’ - HERE

• More about Sir Albert Aynsley-Green - HERE

• PCA’s Paediatric Palliative Care Project - HERE

• QuoCCA, delivering education in paediatric palliative care - HERE

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 whether that’s via PCA socials or Spotify, and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Welcome to Thursdays@3 our regular series of conversations with people living and working at the end of life.

A special episode today looking at the role pharmacists play in our health and wellbeing.

Last week our friends at the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) launched a new partnership with the ‘Pals’ program – which stands for Pharmacy Addressing Loneliness and Social-isolation.

This free program to PSA members is designed to equip pharmacists to understand loneliness and improve the health of their local community.

PSA is also leading one of the National Palliative Care Projects – the Palliative Care Foundation Training Program, which is working towards upskilling pharmacists with the foundational knowledge, skills and compassion needed to provide palliative care support to their patients.

The two people behind all this good work join us for this conversation.

Jenny Kirschner has over 20 years experience in the healthcare and pharmacy sector, and is the founder of the ‘Pals’ program.

And Leah Robinson, Project Manager with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, and one of the heads, hearts, hands involved in the palliative care training.

Click play to join the conversation.

More info and show notes:

• Pals - Pharmacy Addressing Loneliness and Social-isolation (PSA members registration)

• Pals - Pharmacy Addressing Loneliness and Social-isolation website

• Palliative Care Foundation Training Program

• Pharmaceutical Society of Australia

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Welcome to Thursdays@3 our regular series of conversations with people living and working at the end of life.

Today, on the back of Micheal J Fox taking to the stage with Coldplay at Glastonbury recently, we explore life and death with Parkinson’s Disease.

Sharing his experience is Victor McConvey, who is the Manager of Health, Clinical and Community Services at Fight Parkinson’s.

Victor is one of Australia’s most knowledgeable healthcare professionals on Parkinson’s care – a nursing career that spans 30 years, including 20 years as a Parkinson’s clinical nurse consultant, and in 2022 received an Order of Australia Medal for services to nursing and Parkinson’s.

More info and show notes:

• Fight Parkinson’s – HERE.

• Parkinson’s Australia – HERE.

• Michael J Fox Foundation – HERE.

• Michael J Fox and Coldplay at Glastonbury – HERE.

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

This episode takes us back to Queensland to learn more about music therapy and the role it plays in palliative care.

Angela Delaney is a music therapist at the Queensland Children’s Hospital and the National Allied Health Educator with Quality of Care Collaborative Australia (QuoCCA).

Click play to meet Ange and learn more and experience a very special performance.

Show notes and more info:

• Angela Delaney at the 2022 Australian Paediatric Palliative Care Conference – HERE.

• Music therapy and paediatric palliative care: the effect of music therapy on perceived pain and memory making – HERE.

• Quality of Care Collaborative Australia (QuoCCA) – HERE.

• National Paediatric Palliative Care Project – HERE.

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Welcome to Thursdays@3 our regular series of conversations with people living and working at the end of life.

Our special guest today is the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s National Palliative Care Awards - Dr Geoffrey Mitchell

Geoff has been a GP in the Ipswich community in Queensland for almost 40 years, and a busy academic as Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland.

Having offered a ‘cradle to grave’ service to his community for decades, in June this year, Geoff retired.

Click play as we reflect on his career and the important role GPs can play in the delivery of palliative care.

More info and show notes:

• Overview of Geoff’s academic career and reserach – HERE.

• Overview of 2023 National Palliative Care Awards – HERE.

Thank you for tuning into Thursdays@3 and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.

You will find advice, tools, and support at the Palliative Care Australia website where you can also make a donation to support our work.

Welcome to Thursdays@3 our regular series of conversations with people living and working at the end of life.

A real treat today – a face, voice and talent you will be very familiar with, a performer and writer who has occupied treasured space on stage, TV, radio, coffee tables and book shelves – for decades, the one and only Jean Kittson!

What you might not realise is that when it comes to aging, dying, and death – Jean has skin in the game, as a carer for your parents, as the author of a practical guide to having ageing parents, and as the patron of Palliative Care Nurses Australia.

And sadly, through the recent death of her mum and dad – Elaine and Roy, an experience that has left her traumatised and feeling like the system let her family down.

Click play to join the conversation.

More information and show notes:

• Jean’s website, where you can purchase her book ‘We Need to Talk about Mum & Dad – a practical guide to parenting aging parents’ - HERE

• Palliative Care Nurses Australia, conference registration and info - HERE

• Katie Rose Cottage Hospice, Noosa - HERE

Thank you to you for tuning into Thursdays@3 and engaging in ‘matters of life and death’.