Grandma was in hospital for the 20 hours before she died and was unfortunately in a lot of pain. The condition that took her life caused excruciating pain and over our time in hospital, she required significant levels of pain relief in an attempt to make her more comfortable. Whilst the staff tried their best, it was an ongoing battle throughout our time there. Having been in aged care for 15 years now and spending time in acute care settings with clients and my own family, I know the gentle...

I have experienced grief in my life and said goodbye to loved ones, but no one as close as my Grandma. Living with someone that you provide daily care for, whose life is completely intertwined with your own is a different kind of loss. After my Grandpa passed away, people would contact Grandma and say ‘sorry for your loss’. To which she would tell us ‘I don’t know why people say that! He’s not lost, he’s dead.’ So in honour of our beautiful pragmatic Nerida Noon, I’ll avoid saying we...

I was recently listening to a conversation in which someone was sharing the difficulty of communicating with her mother-in-law who lives with dementia. She lives in an aged care facility and repeatedly expresses a wish to go home. She was also fixated on getting her hearing aids fixed, despite the family explaining repeatedly that they’ve already tried and had multiple appointments with the audiologist. I’ve seen this situation play out endless times - loved ones gently trying to explain the...