Donegal Hospice and Coláiste Ailigh in Letterkenny have teamed up to create an art exhibition themed on palliative care.
The exhibition, titled ‘You, Me and Palliative Care’, will be launched in the Colab building at ATU Letterkenny on Friday 13th September from 10am – 4pm as part of Palliative Care Week. Mairead Ní Mhaonaigh from Altan will officially open the event.
Without even knowing what the theme of 2024 was going to be, Catherine Regan, Director of Nursing, Donegal Hospice and Dr Jessica Sui, Consultant in Palliative Care, had agreed that, for this year, they wanted to look at something different that included the community.
The joint collaboration was easy as the hospice gardens flow down to meet the school and many collaborations have been had in the past with the music students performing for patients in the hospice and employees in Coláiste Ailigh volunteer in Donegal Hospice.
By February 2024 plans were well underway and the hospice met with Art teacher Ann Marie NíChanainn and her students to discuss an art exhibition revolving around palliative care.
Dr Sui and Catherine Regan with the help of Christina French, Irish Speaking Champion for the Hospice, gave a brief information session to the students and their Art Teacher Annemarie about what palliative care is, when the hospice gets involved and what they hope to achieve from the exhibition.
Catherine Regan, Director of Nursing at Donegal Hospice said “The aim was to dispel the myth of palliative care and get the student’s perception on what palliative care means to them. This project would allow them to have an individual response to the theme where they will have an opportunity to express their feelings and thoughts.”
Ann Marie NíChanainn, Art Teacher at Coláiste Ailigh said “the project’s nature was very close to the core values and ethos of the ETB which are Respect, Care & Community and indeed very well aligned with some of Donegal Hospice’s own core values being – Respect, Quality, and Partnership. We are very excited that this has allowed the school and the hospice to work together and that this will display the student’s artistic creativity in this way, and for this special week.”
Each piece of art is unique to the individual artist; it encompasses their own thoughts and feelings around palliative care.
Palliative Care Week is an opportunity for you to talk to your family and friends about what your understanding of palliative care is.
There are many misconceptions about palliative care such as it is only about end of life care however palliative care is about supporting and enabling people to live through their life limiting illness.
Providing palliative care is the responsibility of all healthcare professionals however over the course of someone’s illness they may require referral to the specialist palliative care services, known by many as the hospice service.