Metaphor in end-of-life care (MELC)

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Dissemination activities for health professionals and the public

We engage with different communities who may find our work useful. We do this in the following ways:

• November 2012: We introduced the MELC project on the blog of the European Association of Palliative Care. To see our post, click here.
• December 2012: We were asked to write a short piece on the MELC project for the new international online magazine on palliative care, ehospice. To read the article, 'Metaphors in 'good' and 'bad' deaths', click here.
• December 2012: Our article for ehospice.com, 'Metaphors in 'good' and 'bad' deaths', was featured in the Help the Hospices e-Newsletter, Hospice UK Online - Issue 569.
• May 2013: We have posted a blog entry "'Good' and 'bad' deaths in interviews with hospice managers" on The Blog of the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC)
• May 2013: We contributed two 'best case' death stories from our interviews with hospice managers to the EAPC's Prague Charter for palliative care as a human right, see: http://www.eapcnet.eu/Themes/Policy/PragueCharter/Truestoriesfromtheworld.aspx
• August 2013: An overview of our project with some preliminary examples appears in German in Volume 2, Issue 3 of Leidfaden, a specialist magazine for crises, suffering and grief. The reference is:
  Koller, V. (2013): Metaphern in der Palliativversorgung und Sterbebegleitung. Leidfaden 3: 12-15.
• February 2014: Campus in the City, St Nic's Arcade, Lancaster, 2-5pm, 27th February 2014
• February 2014: We wrote a second opinion article for the international magazine on palliative care, ehospice. The article "Fight metaphors for cancer revisited: Are they always bad?" is available online.
• May 2014: Elena Semino appeared on the BBC World Service's Health Check programme talking about the 'battle' against cancer.
• May 2014: Friends Meeting House, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster, 4.30-6.00pm, 14th May 2014 (part of Dying Matters Awareness Week)
• September 2014: We were invited to run a workshop on 'Metaphor in End of Life Care' for hospice staff and volunteers at St Joseph's Hospice in London. Our slides are available.
• November 2014: Elena Semino will present MELC as part of a CASS panel at the ESRC Social Science Festival which will be live-streamed on Google+ and YouTube.
• November 2014: Sheila Payne presented the Dufferin Public Lecture at Riddle Hall Queen's University Belfast on Thursday 13th November. The slides are available.
• December 2014: Our work on a 'metaphor menu' for cancer patients appeared in ehospice, the online magazine on palliative care, to read the article, click here.
• January 2015: The MELC project research was mentioned in an article on Medscape Oncology
• January 2015: Mosaic Science published by the Wellcome Trust covered our research in articles about the language of bad news and breaking bad news.
• January 2015: The Society for editors and proofreaders published a blog on our research called "Why language matters when discussing terminal illness and death"
• March 2015: A CASS Briefing summary is now available describing our project (PDF)
• September 2015: Elena Semino's talk at Cancer Research UK has appeared on their science blog.
• December 2015: Our blog post about "Laughing at Cancer: Humorous metaphors online" appeared on the European Association for Palliative Care website.
• January 2016: The European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) has re-posted our blog entry "'Good' and 'bad' deaths in interviews with hospice managers" as it is one of their all-time most popular posts.
• September 2016: Elena Semino gave a talk on 'How we talk about death, dying and bereavement' at the Faith Group Leaders Conference in Lancaster
• January-May 2017 - Elena Semino gave a series of talks on the findings of the project at St John's Hospice in Lancaster