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How we Die: Explaining the Process of Dying

Thursday, 23 May 2024

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About 80% of older adults living in residential care will die there. This is not surprising as residents are among our society’s oldest and most vulnerable people and in some ways, residential aged care can be seen as long-term palliative care.

Sitting with a dying person (keeping vigil) is usually done by family and friends. However, family and friends may not be available for many reasons including the resident having outlived the rest of their family, being geographically separated from family, or due to homelessness and estrangement from family and friends.

We have been working with the pastoral care team from Southern Cross Cares (SCC), Southern Cross Care (WA), and two of their residential care facilities to introduce the No-One Dies Alone (NODA) program. Volunteers support residents who have no family or friends to keep vigil during the last days and hours of life. NODA is a global movement that began at the Mayo Clinic in the USA. The NODA program at SCC is funded by Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA).

To prepare the volunteers for their role in keeping vigil, we prepared a video presentation to explain the process of dying: the way the body shuts down:

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