Death is a part of life, yet older Australians are often not connected to their communities at end of life and experience medical interventions that prolong length of life not quality of experience. 

The situation is beginning to change, with support from The Wicking Trust, managed by Equity Trustees. The ‘Bringing death back into life’ national grant round opened this year and is focussed on improving the emotional experience and wellbeing of older Australians. The intended impact being that death, dying and grieving are recognised as a part of life, and the opportunity for healthy dying and grieving is available to all older Australians.

The grant round was informed by a roundtable convened by the Wicking Trust, which brought together 24 leaders from across the end-of-life sector. 

“The roundtable is essentially a co-design approach,” Equity Trustees Ageing Well Portfolio Lead Susie Meagher said. 

“It's drawing on the wisdom, the expertise, the experience and incredible knowledge of those organisations and people and change makers working in the end-of-life space.

“The objective of the Wicking Trust was to listen to ensure that philanthropy understood what the issues are, what we need to be thinking about, why we need to be thinking that way, and who we need to be considering in the responses.”

The roundtable aimed to improve collaboration across the sector and lay the foundation for more joined-up grant applications.  A more cohesive and inclusive dying, death and grieving system will give older Australians a much better opportunity to die where they chose, surrounded by family, friends and the support of their community.

It marks a significant step forward given the scope of end-of-life challenges.

“The number of people who die each year just in this country will double in 15 years,” said Melissa Reader, the CEO of Violet, who attended the roundtable in May.

“That's a lot of demand on an already massively constrained, very expensive system that today is not giving people the experience they want and deserve.”

By investing in grass roots community-led programs that engage, educate and activate individuals and communities, older Australians will ultimately receive greater support and experience a better end of life.

Palliative Care Australia National Projects Manager, Chelsea Menchin, who also attended the roundtable, said it had brought together disparate parts of the industry. 

“I work at the national level, but there's people here that work very much grassroots with volunteers and bringing all the voices together, it's actually been really impressive to see how we've all come from different angles, but we have actually all landed in terms of need in quite similar spaces.”

The Wicking Trust is the largest trust in the country dedicated to improving the experience of ageing. It has distributed around $74.5 million since it was founded through a bequest left by John and Janet Wicking in 2002.