Please note - Advance Care Planning Australia's event has sold out but you can check other sessions and purchase ticket here.
As Palliative Care Australia shared, it was a powerful mix of emotions and community at Parliament House, Canberra for the launch of National Palliative Care Week and the world premiere screening of Live the life you please.
Advance Care Planning Australia team members were able to attend the premiere of the film and were moved by this touching and insightful film that delves into the stories of real people as they share their personal experiences of palliative care. ACPA is proud to be a sponsor of the film and congratulates the film makers – Mike Hill, Sue Collins, the Moonshine Agency team and all those involved, including those who so generously shared their stories.
As the film explores, “palliative care is about providing physical, social, emotional and spiritual support to patients and their loved ones. It’s about embracing every moment and living the life you please until the very end. So why aren’t we talking about it?”
The film encourages personal reflection and powerful conversations. At the premiere, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Ged Kearney MP, shared her mum's experience of being supported to die at home by her extended family and a wonderful palliative care team. She said that the Parliamentary Friends of Palliative Care Group wants to see access to palliative care strengthened wherever people live. They also want palliative care to be framed as a stage of life and to see advance care planning strengthened.
The Hon Nola Marina MP also shared her personal experiences and touched on the importance of advance care planning “I would encourage everyone to have an end-of-life plan. Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us”. After caring for several family members at the end of their lives, Nola said to her daughter, “let’s talk about me”. Then she asked her daughter what she would want, explaining, “You have a better chance of getting what you want at end of life through really good planning”. Not long after, Nola’s daughter was in intensive care for eleven days and Nola explained, “I knew what she would want because we’d had that conversation.”
Presenter Simon Waring’s story of his journey with his own family was a powerful way to begin the film and convey the need for everyone to have access to palliative care. At the end of the film, Simon said, “It was only possible for us to create that extraordinary environment for (my son) Marmaduke at home because of the palliative care support.”
He added, “Every one of those lives we were taken into – the patients and the carers – is a beautiful love story”.
West Australian of the Year and Perron Institute Research chair in Palliative Care at UWA, Professor Samar Aoun, said in the panel discussion, “Death, dying, grief and loss is a community responsibility. Death is a social event with a medical component – not the other way around. We need a breaking of taboos, and we need more people to become more death literate. We also need to prepare the community better and provide practical and social support. People are not talking to their families enough about their values and preferences. They’re not dying as they wanted because they haven’t had the conversations.”
Advance Care Planning Australia is holding a special screening of Live the life you please on Thursday 8 June at Coburg's Pentridge Cinemas at 7pm, with a short film exploring advance care planning to begin the screening.
Following the film, we will be hosting a live Q&A with an expert panel including film presenter Simon Waring, journalist and author of 'What will I wear to your funeral' Kellie Curtain, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Deputy Chief Medical Officer and palliative medicine consultant Dr Sonia Fullerton and Advance Care Planning Australia National Program Director Xanthe Sansome.
While our session has sold out, there are other sessions available on the Live the life you please website. You can check other sessions and purchase tickets here.
You can watch the trailer here.