Talk at Te Omanga Hospice Changing Minds Conference

I’m delighted to have been invited to speak at the Te Omanga Hospice Changing Minds conference on Friday 24 October. My talk will be entitled ‘Dad’s Last Days’.

The theme of the conference is ‘Finding Direction in Dementia Care’. In preparing for the talk, I realised that my family’s association with Te Omanga Hospice goes back a long way, which is why I am happy to be talking at the conference — it feels like a circle is being completed.

When I was at Hutt Valley High School, students were offered work experience, and I chose to go to Te Omanga Hospice for an afternoon a week. At the time the Hospice was in Bloomfield Terrace and was a lot smaller. I met a wonderful nurse there called Esther and I remember how peaceful it was. Some years later, my mother’s mother, Eileen Wheeler, spent the last weeks of her life at Bloomfield Terrace. Shortly afterwards I went to live in London, but my mum, Penny, used her music therapy skills at the hospice.

When I returned from London and started working for Dementia Wellington we held a number of hui at Te Omanga, now in Woburn Road. And when Dad was in care at Bob Scott, I met Marion Cooper, who had been the driving force behind Te Omanga, along with her husband, Max. Finally, during Dad’s last days, Mel and Pip from Te Omanga hospice, came and spoke with us. I still remember their wise and practical words and the comfort of talking with them.