Dying to Know Day 2023
Yesterday was Dying to Know Day (8 August), a day to encourage people to prepare and plan for the end of their life. Death is always a delicate subject, so it’s no surprise that many people fail to have conversations with their families about planning for the inevitable event in everyone’s lives. Unfortunately, this leaves many families confronting issues they haven’t discussed in their moment of greatest distress, whether that’s having a clear understanding of someone’s medical end-of-life preferences, the question of organ donation, how they’d like their funeral planned or whether they’ve even prepared a will.
In the lead up to Dying to Know Day, Western Victoria Primary Health Network’s (WVPHN) Palliative Care Team has been working in collaboration with Grampians Region Palliative Care Consortium, Barwon South Western Regional Integrated Cancer Service and Grampians Integrated Cancer Service to raise awareness about end-of-life planning across western Victoria. Together our organisations have pooled resources to place advertorials about Dying to Know Day in newspapers across western Victoria. The advertorial includes a story about Anna Gray, the manager at Grampians Integrated Cancer Service, who has very generously shared her close shave with death on her family’s farm near the Grampians/Gariwerd National Park. This will be followed up with an educational insert into newspapers across the region with links to more resources for planning for death. This project is a great example of organisations working together to pool their resources to reach a bigger audience with the aim of increasing community knowledge and preparation about end-of-life issues.
You can find the advertorial featuring Anna’s story here and the insert about planning here.
WVPHN Annual General Meeting (AGM)
WVPHN’s AGM will be on Monday 30 October 2023. We will be sending out invitations once all details have been finalised, but as always, we’d love to see as many people come along to the AGM as possible.
Seeking New WVHN Board Director
We’re seeking a new board director! WVPHN is governed by a skills-based Board of up to nine Directors under the Company’s Constitution, and we are now looking to fill a vacancy for an Appointed Non-Executive Director, who would join the Board from the 2023 AGM that we’ve just announced above. The appointment will be for a three-year term, with further terms subject to Board endorsement. If you are interested in this role and have demonstrated skills and experience in any of the fields of finance, cyber risk, data governance, population health and health policy, then I would urge you to apply. For further information on the role and how to apply, go here.
Rowena Clift, CEO WVPHN
9 August 2023