Our Palliative Care Bites series offers a variety of lecturers focusing on topics surrounding hospice care, palliative care, and the end of life.
 These sessions are particularly appropriate for clinical staff who are involved with caring for patients who have a palliative diagnosis or are in the last phase of life. However, many of our lectures, including ‘Funerals – Do they matter, myths and messages’, and ‘Kathryn Mannix – Conversations and Stories at the End of Life’ are also especially relevant to everyone.Â
Palliative Care for Heart Failure – Top Tips and Practical Advice.Â
Dr Sharon Chadwick, Palliative Care Consultant.
As patients live longer with multiple co-morbidities, heart failure is a very common condition that needs careful attention to maximise quality of life. Dr Sharon Chadwick has a special interest and lots of experience in managing heart failure patients in the community, in hospital and in the hospice and will be sharing top tips regarding medication, conversations and therapeutic options.
Deprescribing – What should we stop and what should we continue in the face of advancing illness?Â
Dr Clifford Lisk, Consultant Physician in Acute Medicine and Geriatric Medicine, Barnet Hospital.
Polypharmacy poses a real danger as illness advances and we all need guidance on practical and safe ways to reduce the burden of medication.Â
Conversations and Stories at the End of Life.Â
Dr Kathryn Mannix, retired Palliative Care Consultant and author.
Dr Kathryn Mannixhas written several amazing books and lectures widely on the concept of ordinary dying. She is determined that we find a way to talk about death more easily in society; plan ahead and be more at ease with mortality. She is a joy to listen to and we are very, very honoured that she has agreed to be our speaker.
Dementia Top Tips and Practice.Â
Dr Joanne Brady, Palliative Care Consultant, North London Hospice.
Dementia is now the commonest cause of death and it can be complicated in any setting: home, care home, hospice or hospital. Management of those with dementia towards the end of life poses practical, ethical and psychological issues, both for the patient and their family.Â
Frailty and Palliative Care.Â
Dr Eleni Baldwin, Consultant in Elderly Medicine, The Hillingdon Hospital.Â
We look at the concept of frailty, the assessment, and the interface with palliative care, as the boundaries between our specialties become more blurred when we consider the care home population and the projected demographics of our population.
Funerals – Do they matter, myths and messages.
Sarah Jones, Founder and Funeral Director of Full Circle Funerals.
 She will be sharing recent research about what matters to people when arranging a funeral and challenging some perceptions about funeral care.
Â
