Ageing Well Public Talks Series: Taking Control of Dying - Barbara Gale and Victoria Hedges

Join us for the next talk in the Ageing Well Public Talk Series 2023/2024 on how we can prepare for dying

In this talk Barbara and Victoria will present on what are the things we don’t talk about & preparing for our death and as a relative preparing for someone else’s death. We will also talk about ways we can take some of the control over our dying and what are the ways we can co-create our care plans.

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The speakers

Dr Barbara Gale, MBE - Visiting Senior Fellow in Integrated Care for the Integrated Care Academy (ICA). Barbara has 40 years’ experience working in end-of-life care, with a background in nursing, palliative care and systemic family therapy. Most recently Barbara was Chief Executive of St Nicholas Hospice Care from 2007 to 2021, developing innovative models of care, built on public health and asset-based community development approaches to palliative care.

Dr Victoria Hedges - Victoria works as Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and also at Sobell House hospice in Oxford and provides specialist advice for patients in a broad range of settings (including in the community and hospitals). She also works with the Oxford Kidney Unit, providing supportive care for patients and their families who are making complex decisions, such as to stop haemodialysis.

About the series

The Ageing Well Public Talk (AWPT) series explores how important it is, over our lifespan, to maintain well-balanced nutrition and hydration as well as regular physical and social activity in older age, also known as The Five Pillars of Ageing Well.

Ageing demonstrates most significantly when we reach a certain age, the usual benchmark being 65+, but ageing starts much sooner and the way ageing demonstrates when we are over 65 depends on decisions we make over our life span.

The AWPT series and related materials such as The Five Pillars of Ageing Well became the cornerstones of further engagement with the public, specifically around COVID-19 and the relating self-isolation, which are now available on the OU website and the Internet.

The overall aim of these series of interventions is to facilitate a step-change in user behaviour and support service provision. Self-management and becoming a partner in our own healthcare is an important aspect of these talks. This may have a wider impact on healthcare economies, as ageing and related co-morbidities have a substantial health and economic burden footprint.