Compassionate Communities
Great Southern Compassionate Communities
Compassionate Communities is a global movement that encourages our whole community to be involved in supporting people, their families and carers through serious illness or at the end of life.
The support we can provide as friends, family, neighbours and community members can give an unwell or dying person and their family much greater choices about where and how they want to be cared for up to and including their dying moments. These choices add greatly to their quality of life during this time and after.
This is especially true in rural communities where people often rely more on their support networks.
It is estimated when someone is seriously unwell or dying only a small amount of their time is spent receiving formal care from medical practitioners and support services and their remaining time is spent receiving support from family, friends and community.
This support is often referred to as ‘informal’ care or network care and can be as simple as putting the bins out or dropping the kids to school. It is called informal or network care as it generally involves coordinating support among a group of people who share the load by forming a network. Offering, asking for and accepting support can enable someone to have their end of life wishes and this can help immensely with bereavement.
Compassionate Communities is also about encouraging people:
to talk more openly about dying and make ‘end of life’ a more comfortable subject
to share their own end of life wishes
to accept support when it’s offered, even if it’s early on when they don’t think they need it.
to feel comfortable approaching someone who is seriously ill, dying or going through a hard time for another reason.
Compassionate Communities recognises that social connection and belonging is important to everyone’s health and well-being not just at the end of life.
The City of Albany and WA Primary Health Alliance with the Albany community have developed a Compassionate Albany Charter to encourage each of us to embrace the values of compassion in our everyday lives.
“What we rejoice in is the circumstances of someone who is loved in their community, whose community feels that they have the capacity to step forward and that person and their family are able to accept that love and care and then things [caring for someone] actually work beautifully.”