Overview of tools and resources for building compassionate communities
Below is a list of reports, toolkits and resources from around the world that support the building of public health and compassionate community approaches to end of life care.
Please contact us if you have a resource that you think needs including!
Public health and palliative care reports and guidance:
a) A Road Less Lonely (Good Life Good Death Good Grief and Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care)
Published in 2018, this report explores options relating to practical next steps which could be taken on a national or community level to promote more open and supportive attitudes and behaviours relating to death, dying and bereavement. The report focuses on Scotland but is relevant for all countries.
b) Each community is prepared to help (UK Ambitions Framework)
Guidance developed to support the UK Ambitions framework for palliative and end of life care 2015-2020, ‘Each community is prepared to help’. It looks at how a public health approach to end of life care can be developed in a range of settings from hospitals and primary care to government health authorities.
Compassionate community toolkits and resources:
a) Healthy End of Life Project (HELP) (La Trobe University)
The ‘Healthy End of Life Project (HELP); offering & providing, asking & accepting help’ is a research-informed and evidence-based public health palliative care resource to guide implementation in communities.
b) Compassionate community start-up kit (Pallium Canada)
The Compassionate Community Startup Toolkit was designed to support community champions within Canada when starting their own Compassionate Community. The toolkit helps community champions present the concept of a compassionate community, prepare for meetings, and helps community initiatives start stronger and more efficiently. Available in French and English
c) British Columbia Centre for Palliative Care Toolkit for Initiating a Compassionate Community
The toolkit was developed by the British Columbia Centre for Palliative Care in partnership with Kalein Hospice Centre and with input from Compassionate Communities Champions across British Columbia, Canada.
d) Scottish Compassionate Communities Toolkit (Good Life Good Death Good Grief)
A website hosting a collection of resources providing ideas and information for anyone wishing to make their community a more supportive place for people dying, caring or grieving.
Funded by Macmillan Cancer Support, the Truacanta Project will support local communities across Scotland who are interested in taking community action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care.
Compassionate settings
The Compassionate City Charter
The Compassionate City Charter includes 13 steps that cities, towns or villages may take to publically recognise those who are dying, caregiving or grieving and to make their locality a supportive and open place for these processes to take place in.
The Compassionate City Charter can be found here and an explanation of the 2021 update here.
A number of Compassionate Cities can now be found around the world. Examples include:
Compassionate workplace
Canadian Compassionate Companies (Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association) :
The Canadian Compassionate Company program is designed to recognize those corporations that have formal human resource policies in place to support employees who take care of a terminally ill loved one. The CCC designation is managed through the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association.
Compassionate Workplace Campaign (Pallium Canada)
The Compassionate Workplace Campaign is designed to ignite a movement across Canada and create more supportive environments for the increasing number of employees who are caregiving, grieving or dealing with a serious illness.
Compassion@Work Program:
Education and support for best-practice support in the face of loss at work.
Compassionate Schools
A collaboration between Strathcarron Hospice, the Universities of Strathclyde and Edinburgh and St Francis Xavier’s RC Primary School, Falkirk. It is in response to research that highlighted the health-promoting benefits to children and the wider community when the subject of death, dying and bereavement is taught in schools. It addresses some of the questions asked by children during this research as well as learning outcomes identified in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence.
Public events and days
Dying to Know Day (Australia):
Annual campaign day activating conversations and curiosity action around dying, caring and grieving
Good Death Week (Scotland):
Annual opportunity to promote the positives of living in a society where people can be open about dying, death and bereavement. Many organisations and groups use this week to gain wider engagement in their communities.
To Absent Friends (Scotland):
A people’s festival of storytelling of remembrance held across Scotland in November each year.
A website with global input and reflections about the death café movement, with resources on how to host your own event.
Death over Dinner (US):
This project was created as a gift, an invitation and a simple set of tools to help families and friends address the basic human fact that we are all, at some point, going to die and the dinner table is the most forgiving place for difficult conversations.
Public education
The Last Aid project helps to educate citizens about the basics of palliative care and care for dying people using materials developed by Last Aid International.
End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone (EASE):
Currently being piloted in Edinburgh and Dundee EASE is a public education course for anyone who wants to be able to support someone with issues they face relating to death, dying and bereavement.
Other useful websites and networks
Spanish and Latin American compassionate communities resource, training and information page from the New Health Foundation.
Compassionate Communities Hub:
A digital space for communities in Australia to share and learn and access tools and support as they embark on exploring a compassionate communities approach.
The Compassionate Communities Exchange:
With the support of Compassionate Community champions across Canada, Pallium has created a digital space for community champions to exchange ideas, knowledge, and connect with other Compassionate Community work in Canada and around the world. Whether you have experience with the Compassionate Communities movement or you simply want to learn more about initiatives happening across Canada and internationally, join the conversation today.
A network of compassionate community projects initiated through hospices in the UK.
Sandwell Compassionate Communities:
101 stories of compassion and other resources from the Sandwell Compassionate Community and partners.
BrumYODO is a community collective aiming to encourage and support the people of Birmingham, UK to have open and honest conversations about death and dying and mortality.
Dying Matters is a coalition of individual and organisational members across England and Wales, which aims to help people talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement, and to make plans for the end of life.
Bureau MORBidee creates products and services that help raise awareness around death and dying in the Dutch society. We create these products and services for professionals in healthcare and funeral companies, but also for the general public and for (high)schools. Available in Dutch and English.
For an Emotional Will and Funeral Checklists to support end of planning.
National Guidance to Ambition 6: Communities are prepared to help.
This forms part of the Ambitions Framework for Palliative and End of Life Care 2015 - 2020, published as a strategic document by NCPC, PHPC UK and Hospice UK.
Download Community Development in End of Life Care – Guidance on Ambition Six HERE