The sixth annual Palliative Care Week
coordinated by All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC) is
taking place from 8 to 14 September 2019. The week aims to raise awareness of
the difference palliative care can make to people
with any life-limiting illness or condition, to carers and to families throughout the island of Ireland.
This year’s theme is ‘Palliative Care:
Surrounding You With Support’, focusing on how people with palliative care
needs are being supported in the community. This can involve support from
primary care (such as GPs, public health nurses, district nurses), from
hospices, hospitals, nursing homes, and wider community supports beyond formal
health and social care services. Support can be provided for weeks, months and
years.
People with palliative care needs are featuring
in the campaign including Ballymena couple, Rosemary and Tony O’ Mullan.
Tony comes from a farming family based in Dunloy, Co Antrim,
and was a full-time farmer until his diagnosis in 2017. He attended his GP when
he didn’t feel well enough to attend a family dinner and following extensive
tests was diagnosed with two different types of cancer. He explains: “It was a very mixed up sort of
a diagnosis. There were two different complaints. There was myeloma (cancer of
the plasma cells), a treatable type of cancer. So when I heard I had cancer,
well not the greatest thing in the world. But then when I heard that it was
treatable, ah well, we’ll have a go. And here I am, living when I should be
somewhere else.”
Following
Tony’s initial treatment, Rosemary explained how invaluable the palliative care
he received from the Marie Curie community nursing team was. She said, “The (chemotherapy) was very, very
severe on him and then he got home he wasn’t able to climb stairs or anything.
So he got the hospital bed and Marie Curie girls stepped in immediately. I
mean, they were just amazing.”
Tony continued, “If I wasn’t getting the care I’m getting I’m not so sure where I would be. I don’t think I’d be lying here. The family are important too. I can stay at home. Rosemary can stay at home. The whole family is all a unit.”
Brendan O’Hara is a programme manager at All
Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care, which is coordinating
Palliative Care Week. Thanking the O’Mullan family and all those from across
Ireland who have spoken of their palliative care experiences for this year’s
campaign, Brendan said it was important for people to have these conversations.
Brendan said: “We are keen to create more
conversations around palliative care and Tony and Rosemary O’Mullan’s story
will contribute to this. These conversations need to take place across the
palliative care sector, across the wider health and social care system, and
across the whole of society. As we create conversations around palliative care,
particularly involving people with direct experience, we hope more people will
feel empowered to think about how palliative care could help them.”
To view Tony and Rosemary’s video and the videos of
all those who are taking part in the Palliative Care Week campaign click here
