Actor calls for better end-of-life care

IT IS particularly important during a recession that the “ritual of death and dying is made as peaceful and as dignified as possible”, actor and Ireland’s cultural ambassador Gabriel Byrne has said.

At the announcement yesterday of a grant scheme for hospitals to improve their end-of-life care, Byrne said there was a need to raise awareness about the importance of a dying person’s last days – to the person and their loved ones.

“Death used to be a community event, a social event. Waking the body was a very traditional form of mourning and of grieving where the community comes together to support the family. Well, that has changed and death has become a business, if you like.”

He had experienced the deaths of people close to him, one of which occurred recently in an open ward in hospital in Florida. It need not cost a lot, he continued, to vastly improve on this.

“How important is it to be in a room by yourself? I would say tremendously important. Colours [of the room]. The way the body of a deceased loved one is shown to the family. These may seem like unimportant things but the idea behind this initiative is to give some kind of dignity to the process of dying.”

The Design and Dignity grants scheme, to which hospitals can apply, will initially have €250,000 from Lottery funds, as well as €500,000 from the HSE.

The Irish Hospice Foundation aims to match this €750,000 through fundraising, for a total of €1.5 million.

Yesterday’s announcement took place at the Mater hospital in Dublin, which is the first in the State to appoint an end-of-life care co-ordinator.

The post, held by former social worker Diarmuid Ó Coimín, is initially funded by the foundation.

Among initiatives taken there have been training for staff on breaking bad news to relatives; the refurbishment of single rooms for people who are dying and their families; and the display of signs outside rooms, showing white spirals on blue backgrounds, that indicate that a person is dying there and to indicate the need for quiet.

Paul Murray, spokesman for the Irish Hospice Foundation, said it was hoped hospitals such as the Mater would serve as “exemplar hospitals” that “other hospitals can come to look at”.

Almost 30,000 people die here annually, with more than half dying in a hospital or similar setting.

Byrne said the model at the Mater could be a template for end-of-life care across the world.

“What works here in Dublin will work everywhere. At a fundamental level, one of the things we have lost contact with is the importance of myth and ritual in everyday life. In eastern societies they embrace death as a way of making life more meaningful.”

He would stay involved in fund-raising for the foundation. It was particularly important during the current time of recession and despair to try and focus on what could be done, he said.

“You see, the thing is that from my point of view, this is something I can do. By committing in some way to some public kind of service you are doing what you can.

“There are enough experts to comment on the economic situation here but I think it’s appalling. I think there’s anger, fear, hopelessness, a complete sense of betrayal.”