Compassionate Communities One year on... Moving palliative and end of life care beyond the professional world and making it everyone’s business is what our work is about, and the hospice values of care and compassion, respect, partnership and trust are at the heart of how we go about it.
B
y focusing on what’s strong rather than what’s wrong, we’ve been working alongside local people and neighbourhoods interested in building compassionate communities together; ones that are open to engaging in healthy conversations about death, dying grief and loss, and to offering support in meaningful and practical ways to those living with poor health, dying or grieving in their midst. Here are some of their stories:
7
www.stcolumbashospice.org.uk
To Absent Friends: St Mark’s Portobello To Absent Friends is a week-long festival that invites people across Scotland to create and share memories and stories, grieve and celebrate the people they have loved who have died. During 2020 so many of us also experienced the kind of losses that extend beyond the death of loved ones into losses of physical and emotional health, employment and financial
security, faith, relationships and community participation. In recognition of this, we worked alongside St Mark’s Episcopal Church in Portobello to create a reflective space within their graveyard and gardens. Accessible to all in the community, it was a place for those who wished to mark personal stories of grief, uncertainty, loss and hope.
