What is a Compassionate Community?

Compassionate Communities began in Australia and is now a global movement that encourages our whole community to be involved in supporting people, their families and carers at the end of life.

The support we can provide as friends, family, neighbours and community can give the dying person and their family much greater choices about where and how they die, and this can greatly improve their quality of life.

This is especially true in rural communities where people often rely more on their support networks.

This support is often referred to as ‘informal’ care or network care. It is estimated when someone is seriously unwell or dying only a small amount of their is spent receiving formal care from medical practitioners and support services and their remaining time is spent with family, friends and community.

When people feel they were able to provide someone with their end of life wishes this can help immensely with their bereavement.

Compassionate Communities is also about encouraging:

• everyone to talk more openly about dying and make it a more comfortable subject
• people share their own end of life wishes
• people to accept support when it’s offered, even if it’s early on when they don’t think they need it.
• people to feel comfortable approaching someone who is seriously ill, dying or going through a hard time for another reason.

Compassionate Communities recognizes that social connection and belonging is important to everyone’s health and well-being not just at the end of life.

Read the Compassionate Albany Charter 

Read the Compassionate Albany Charter Report