A word from the President

STARTING OFF STRONG

A word from the President

There’s no refuting what a difficult year 2021 was and the challenges this has presented for healthcare workers. We’re acutely aware many of you were on the front line in extremely challenging settings. On behalf of the team I would like to say thank you for all that you have done and will no doubt continue to do. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say I hope our future is brighter in 2022 and we emerge stronger from these experiences.

The importance of self-care has never been more amplified than it is now at the beginning of 2022. The load that the past two years has placed on what was already a stretched workforce is perhaps immeasurable.

We hope that you are able to seek out some purposeful and realistic self-help measures both informal and formal that may assist in reducing potential traumatic stress, physical effects and burnout. Your quality of life is important – personally and professionally.

As I’m sure you all know, our Biennial conference in 2020 couldn’t go ahead. For the first time in the 17 years we couldn’t all get together. We have begun planning for November 2022 in Terrigal and can’t wait to see everyone there in person.

Much like our Biennial conference the volunteer managers conference was another COVID casualty, but I know Kate and the committee are busy organising for 2022.

A significant impact COVID-19 has had on the administration team was a marked increase in phone contact from the general public. The challenges faced by many families trying to navigate the palliative care journey for their loved ones as well as the COVID-19 restrictions certainly illustrated the many challenges faced by many people.

We also heard from our members, who were daily encountering stressful situations caused by visitor limits and other burdensome restrictions. We were so glad to be of assistance, if only as a listening ear and maybe some advice to offer.

We continue to liaise regularly with the Ministry for Health (MoH), and we were fortunate to have some of the Minister’s representatives joining us at our AGM and 40th anniversary in early December 2021. I think this is a positive reflection of our ongoing relationship with the MoH and we look forward to working with them in the future.

Both Linda and I attended the NSW Parliamentary Upper House Standing Committee on Law and Justice to give evidence at a hearing for enquiry into the provisions of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021 in December. Obviously work will continue this year on the Bill.

The CCREOL project, a collaborative project with Southern NSW LHD and funded by COORDINARE has been a great success. Fiona has done a wonderful job of establishing new volunteer services in Cooma, Eurobodalla and Queanbeyan with more to come. New training resources developed as part of this project were also headlined in the International eHospice Journal, a great reflection of the quality work being done by our team.

Capacity HELP is a project in partnership with La Trobe University that we have also been working on. It’s a public health approach to end of life and palliative care that aims to link formal and informal networks and delivers educations sessions

The importance of self-care has never been more amplified than it is now.

for communities. Much of this was delayed due to the Covid impact but is gaining more traction now.

I would like to acknowledge the resignation of Rachel Simpson from the PCNSW Management Committee as she moves into a new role within the volunteering sector. Thank you Rachel for the freshness and enthusiasm you brought to the Management Committee during your tenure.

At the start of 2022, we can look forward to resuming programming of our regular education symposia, the development of our Homelessness and Palliative Care forum, the roll-out of our Community Conversations sessions (read more about these in this edition of Pallium) and the development of our Palliative Care Ambassador Network. There’s more to come on this.

We’re starting off strong for 2022 – better together. Enjoy your Pallium.

I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

Therese Smeal PCNSW President