Inaugural Jennifer Cashmore Oration delivered by Prof Gregory Crawford MBBS, MPHC, MD, FRACGP, FAChPM

Speaker: Professor Gregory Crawford MBBS, MPHC, MD, FRACGP, FAChPM

Palliative care will eventually be needed for most of us. How a society cares for, funds programs and services, and enacts legislation for those facing the end of their lives remains vitally important today but is not always visible, spoken about or well understood.

The past informs the future, and this is certainly the case for palliative care in South Australia.

Dame Cicely Saunders, the proclaimed founder of the modern hospice movement said, “You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die”.

This premise has been at the heart of South Australian practice from its very beginnings.

How have the values and practices of this history influenced our current directions, and what does the future hold for palliative care in our society?

This address will aim to answer this question.

About Professor Gregory Crawford

Greg Crawford is a respected palliative physician and contributor to international research in his field. He is the current Chair of Palliative Care SA, advocating for quality care for our community, and has also served on national advisory committees for Palliative Care Australia.

About the Jennifer Cashmore Oration

Named in honour of Jennifer Cashmore AM, a former member of the South Australian House of Assembly and Minister of Health and Minister of Tourism, the History Trust of South Australia will present this oration on an occasional basis. As a parliamentarian, Ms Cashmore was the critical figure of her times in cementing the transformative principle of patient consent to medical treatment that has shaped our modern societal responses. The relationship between the medical and the societal, with a strong historical perspective, will be the theme of future Orations.