Have a listen to Wayne Naylor on RNZ’s The Panel . It's a timely reminder of two truths we still struggle to face in Aotearoa.
Firstly, Wayne challenged a common myth about hospice care. Hospice care does not mostly happen in hospice buildings. Most hospice care happens in people’s homes, around kitchen tables, in lounge chairs, beside hospital beds or lazy boys supplied brought into the living rooms, and surrounded by the people and things that matter most. Hospice is not just a building. It is compassionate care that wraps around people and whānau wherever they are as we've been sharing in our
Hospice Awareness campaign this week.
Secondly, the conversation touched on something our society urgently needs to get better at: talking about dying.
Modern Western medicine has become incredibly skilled at curing and extending life. But in focusing so heavily on cure, we have often denied death. It’s treated as failure rather than a natural part of life. The result is that many people feel unprepared, isolated, or afraid to talk about dying.
We need a health system that values dying well as much as it values starting well, getting well, and living well.
Because dying well matters. For our own dignity and for our whānau.
And it says a lot about who we are and how we care for one another as humans.
Hospice care helps people live well until they die, with comfort, compassion and aroha.
Maybe one of the most important things we can do is simply begin the conversation.