What is a compassionate community?
Compassionate Communities are networks of people supporting each other to live fully before we die.
By empowering communities we can support each other to be prepared and enable a good end of life wherever possible.
A caring network providing kindness and compassion has an enormous impact on the health and wellbeing to the person with the illness as well as those around them.
Compassionate Communities UK was formed to develop a broader rollout of Compassionate Communities in both primary care and end of life care. It is based on the pioneering work of Dr Julian Abel and Professor Allan Kellehear and is the founding umbrella body of this work.
In Suffolk, we are seeking to build a compassionate community which includes families, neighbours, local organisations, spiritual support as well as other health and social care professionals such as doctors, nurses and carers.
People within a compassionate community work together to support an individual, their family and carers to identify and respond to their needs, wishes and choices at the end of life.
Our local Compassionate Community aims to:
· share information and guidance to be able to help in situations towards the end of life
· enable a strong community network of support to individuals at the end of life, their family and their carers
· make it easier to have difficult conversations about death and dying, so that people are better informed and able to make choices and decisions.
For more details visit Compassionate Communities
