The Art of DyingMt Hawthorn Community Church

19 June 2011

Dr Doug Bridge, Palliative Care Physician, Royal Perth Hospital

Bangladesh 1979

The wall

The wall

The wall

The window

The window

The door

The door

The door

The wall

Nude, Green Leaves and Bust

Nude, Green Leaves and Bust is one of a series of portraits that Picasso painted of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter from 1932. The vibrant blue and lilac canvas is more than five feet tall.

On May 4, 2010, the painting was sold for US$106.5 million, a record for an art work sold at auction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude,_Green_Leaves_and_Bust

Pablo Picasso 1881-1973

Science and Charity 1897, aged 16

Healthy person’s world

work

house car travel

money status power

health

family

spirituality

work

healthfamily

spirituality

Sick person’s world

work

health

family spirituality

Dying person’s world

work

health

family spirituality

Dying person’s world

= human relationships

= transcendent relationships

Psalm 23: God is closer in times of trouble

PS 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

  2 He makes me lie down in

green pastures, he leads me beside quiet

waters,  3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of

righteousness for his name's sake. 

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

  5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

  6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Choose your place of death:HospitalHospice Home

Darwin 2008

Choose your death: sudden or predictable ?

If you could choose the way you will die, would you rather die:

Suddenly, without warning,

or slowly and predictably?

Cure or heal?Diseases can be curedSuffering persons need healing

pain nausea constipation

dyspnoea lethargy

physical

psychological

spiritual

Healing - Prof Balfour Mount

Healing is a relational process involving movement towards an experience of integrity and wholeness, which may be facilitated by a caregiver’s interventions but is dependent on an innate potential within the patient. It is not dependent on the presence of, or the capacity for, physical well being. Indeed, it is possible to die healed.

Palliative Medicine 2003; 17: 657-658

Nurse/social worker/doctor Cicely SaundersThe Founder of the Modern Hospice Movement

St Christopher’s Hospice, London

St Christopher’s Hospice chapel

St Christopher’s Hospice, London Triptych by Dame Cicely Saunder’s husband

Palliative Care

• affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;

• neither hastens nor postpones death;• provides relief from pain and other distressing

symptoms;• integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects

of patient care;• offers a support system to help patients live as

actively as possible until death;• offer a support system to help the family cope

during the patient’s illness and during their own bereavement.

(WHO 1990)

Rev Dr Michael WrightUK chaplain, researcher, educator

“Hospices arose in a Christian context. But non-religious patients demonstrate similar needs to their religious counterparts: for love, for meaning, for forgiveness and for transcendence”

Spirituality: a developing concept within Palliative CareProgress in Palliative Care 2001; 9: 143-148

Prof Chantal Chou 趙可式博士

Taiwan 台湾

A model of spirituality in terminally ill patients (Chantal Chao)

Communion with a higher beingfaithfulness, hope gratitude

Communion with selfSelf-identity, wholeness, inner peace

Communion with othersLove, reconciliation

Communion with nature Inspiration from the beauty of nature, creativity

I

Music

41

42

The wall

The wall

The wall

The window

The window

The door

The door

The door

The wall

An amazing promise

LK 23:42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. "

  43 Jesus answered

him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Patmos

A new creation with no deathREV 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."