Welcome

This site is dedicated to providing you with useful information about life, death and dying, palliative care, grief and loss, spirituality, meaning, complementary therapies and the arts. An eclectic mix of subjects that motivate and inspire me... I hope they inspire you! Read on to find out more.

About Molly Carlile

Molly has had an extensive career in health, specialising in palliative care. As a registered nurse, an accredited counsellor, educator and university lecturer she has provided clinical care and grief and bereavement support for clients of all ages, in addition to providing extensive education programs for health professionals, schools and community organisations.

Molly has worked in a range of environments from acute metropolitan health services to inpatient palliative care units and the community, both rural and regional. Her senior leadership and management roles have enabled Molly to establish a process of supervision, self care and clinical support for staff members from a range of disciplines. Molly has a firm commitment to the philosophy of holistic care for clients and holistic self care for health professionals.

Molly is currently Manager of the North and West Metropolitan Region Palliative Care Consortium. Comprising nine member organisations, the consortium facilitates palliative care provision for the largest and most diverse region in Victoria.

Molly’s private consultancy practice has seen her provide consultancy, education and project management for a wide range of clients including Victoria and Monash Universities, Victorian Department of Human Services, Palliative Care Victoria and numerous metropolitan and regional palliative care consortia. She regularly conducts one and two day seminar programs for a variety of organisations including Ausmed and Royal District Nursing Service.

As a Reiki Master/ Teacher in addition to her health and education qualifications, Molly has demonstrated her eagerness to embrace both conventional and complementary approaches to her work. Molly has a firm commitment to the “compassionate workplace” concept and actively promotes this approach both in the health and corporate sectors, in her regular speaking engagements. Molly has written a number of book chapters, regularly contributes articles to a variety of professional and mainstream publications and is currently working on her second book, due for publication mid 2010. Her first children’s book, “Jelly Bean’s Secret” tells the story of a family experiencing the death of their much loved Grandma and was published in 2005 by Innovative Resources.

Molly has been a frequent guest on radio and television, addressing issues of death, grief and community connection. She helps people develop strategies to have senstive conversations with children about death, before they are faced with the death of someone they love.

Molly has embraced the arts as a vehicle for awakening people to the need for death to be normalised as part of life, for de-mystifiying dying and for empowering people to talk about death with their kids as they would sex, drugs and all of the other elements of life that kids need to learn about. Winner of a 2008 Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship, Molly travelled to the U.S, U.K and Ireland in 2009 to explore how others are using the arts to address issues of health and wellness. Her project "Using the arts to encourage community conversations about death and grief" saw her invited to speak at a number of international organisations.

Molly collaborated with celebrated actor and playwright, Alan Hopgood in the production of “Four Funerals in One Day” a play that explores the role of storytelling in the lives of dying patients and their carers. “Four Funerals in One Day” premiered to great acclaim at the 9th National Palliative Care Conference in Melbourne on August 29th 2007 and has been touring nationally ever since. This performance piece challenges the audience to think about death, relationships, the burden of caring and euthanasia. She is currently working on a number of arts based projects that will be launched in 2010.

Molly is a passionate and entertaining speaker who challenges her audiences to explore their personal values, their views on life and death and their understanding of altruism and empathy. In her public speaking role, Molly promotes personal reflection, empowerment and compassion as essential tools to developing rewarding personal and professional relationships and ultimately to contributing positively to humanity.

Winner of the inaugural Arts and Health Australia Award for Health Promotion in November 2009, Molly plans to expand her participation in the international arts and health movement in 2010.

Fellow Royal College of Nursing Australia
Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD)
Associate Fellow Australian College of Health Service Executives (ACHSE)
Graduate member of the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors (AIPC)
Accredited Counsellor, Supervisor, Member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA)
Accredited Grief and Loss Counsellor, Educator and Supervisor with the National Association for Loss and Grief (NALAG)
Accredited Reiki Master/Teacher (ARC Inc.)

Board Member Quay Initiatives Australia (encouraging selfless living)
Board member Chaplains without Borders
Past Member of the Board of Management of Palliative Care Victoria (PCV)
Past Board member Altruism Australia (formerly Australian Altruism Foundation)
Past Board member Bass Coast Regional Health
Judge Australian Turtle Awards (Australian Altruism Foundation)
Judge Australian Humanitarian Awards (AAF)

Churchill Fellow 2008

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Palliative Care gets a mention in the 'great health debate"

I nearly fell off my chair today when our Prime Minister mentioned palliative care during the televised debate with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott about health. I hope this was an indication that we are finally hitting the mainstream radar! Mr. Rudd didn't mention any other specialist care streams other than emergency and elective waiting lists, so palliative care being mentioned in his presentation related to beds, infrastructure spending and service delivery was most encouraging! It's up to us now to keep the momentum going............talk about death, grief and palliative care every where you go and maybe, just maybe we might finally get some investment in not only service delivery, but in health promoting palliative care and community engagement. Onward and upward!
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Launch of "Who Am I?" Spirituality Resource Education Package

A seminar on March 22nd 2010 at the Treacy Centre, Parkville will launch an extensive education package for participants. The Who Am I? Spirituality Resource was developed by the Spirituality Committee of the North and West Metropolitan Region Palliative Care Consortium in 2008 to assist people to have conversations about spirituality with patients, students, clients and residents. The resource has been embraced by people working in palliative care, but has a wider application to other healthcare areas, schools, community centres, aged care and in the general community.
Feedback we have received indicated that some people still felt apprehensive about how to use the Who Am I? Spirituality Resource, so the committee with support from the consortium has developed an extensive education package to assist organisations in training their staff in the use of the Who Am I? resource. The Education Package will be launched at a seminar on March 22nd 2010 in Parkville. The seminar will replicate the information in the Education Package so participants will be able to experience the education first and then utilise it in their own work environments.

All participants in the seminar will receive a FREE copy of the Education Package as part of their registration. Numbers are STRICTLY limited, so be quick to book your place! See the flyer below for more details:

An interactive full day seminar to launch the “Who Am I?” Spirituality Resource Education Package will be held on March 22nd, 2010 at the Treacy Centre, 126 The Avenue, Parkville. The seminar will provide an opportunity for registrants to participate in a program developed to assist you in training staff in your organization in the use of the Who Am I? Spirituality Resource.
All participants in the seminar will receive the education package (including powerpoint presentations, DVD role play, 5x copies of the resource, pdf versions of the worksheets, pdf version of the “Capturing the Conversation” template and a generic evaluation form) free once their seminar registration fee is paid. Additional copies will be made available at a discounted price on the day for participants only.
Copies of the education package will be made available for purchase at the full price to those who are unable to attend the seminar.
Registrations will open at the beginning of February however expressions of interest are now requested from anyone wishing to attend. As participant numbers are strictly limited, you are encouraged to express your interest as soon as possible to Kerrie Chambers via email: kerriec@pacific.net.au in order to receive a registration kit.
This is an opportunity to attend an interactive, interdisciplinary seminar that will assist you in having conversations about spirituality with patients and families, using the “Who Am I?” resource. It is also an opportunity to receive the Who Am I? Education Package for FREE as part of your registration.
So DON’T DELAY …………….. register your interest as places will fill fast.
“WHO AM I?” SPIRITUALITY RESOURCE

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Four Funerals knocks 'em dead!





We performed "Four Funerals in One Day" at the Arts and Health Conference to great international acclaim!. It was so exciting to see a full auditorium of international people clap madly and give a standing ovation to the incredibly talented team of Alan Hopgood, Michelle Hall, Jenny Seedsman and Margot Knight at the completion of the performance! The forum that Alan and I convened was equally well received. It was also really exciting to have Ambassador for Ageing, Noelene Brown in the audience. Gotta say I was a little star struck having watched her on television when I was a kid!

Four Funerals has done really well this year touring widely in metropolitan and rural Victoria and interstate. Everywhere we go, people really engage with the concepts explored during the play and enjoy the interaction of the forum. So many people have said to me that they were a little nervous that it would be 'morbid" because of course the topic is death, but it's wonderful to hear people laughing during the performance and to hear their responses afterwards. Things like "It was funny, I laughed out loud but it made me think at the same time" are common things we hear from people.

Next year we hope to take "Four Funerals in One Day" back interstate and to do some more performances in Melbourne and Victoria. If you're interested in bring it to your town..........let us know. We'll go anywhere! It's a great way to get your community thinking about how they can support each other by having timely conversations about death and grief.

Special thanks to my close friend and colleague Alan Hopgood and to our wonderful team of performers for making "Four Funerals in One Day" the success it has been to date and I can't wait to see it go international in 2010!

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Arts and health Australia Inaugural award for Health Promotion



Receiving my award
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Some speaking gig shots from 2009





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Conference and speaking engagements are finished for the year



Well all of my speaking gigs are finished for the year now and it's been a busy one! It was great to speak at the national Palliative Care Australia and Asia Pacific Hospice conference "Together 2009" in Perth in October. Met some wonderful people from all over the world and was thrilled to be speaking about leadership and resilience to health professionals who are usually so focused on caring for others that they forget themselves!
Also had a great time at the inaugural Arts and Health Australia conference in Port Macquarie where I gave a keynote address on encouraging communities to talk about death and grief. This was a wonderful conference organised by the ever resourceful Margret Meagher and I was thrilled to win the inaugural Arts and Health Australia Award for Health Promotion.....very unexpected, but a great thrill!
Utopia International Retreat in Noosa was again a blast. I had the joy of being Master of Ceremonies as well as giving a keynote and running a workshop on working with grieving clients. It's amazing that people from the holistic, metaphysical and complementary therapies areas are sometimes not prepared for the depth of grief that clients carry with them when they come for a massage or an energy treatment. It was great working with these inspiring and experienced practitioners who openly embraced 'role play' exercises to practice their new skills as grief supporters!
I also did a bucketload of two day seminars for Ausmed all over the country this year. Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on "Dealing with Disruptive Staff Behaviour", "End of Life Care", "Counselling in terminal illness", "Leading with emotional intelligence" and "Compassionate Management". It never ceases to amaze me the wealth of knowledge and experience we have in the health professions. I love doing these two day gigs 'cause it gives me an opportunity to engage with lots of health professionals, particularly nurses, who are so passionate about what they do, but often not supported by their organisations.
I truly believe that nurses need to re-engage with the inate spirit of nursing....the ability to connect on an intimate level with people at their most vulnerable. This is the craft of nursing and we sometimes forget that and hide behind the technology that has become such a part of the modern profession.....more on that another time!
Next year is shaping up to be just as exciting with lots of gigs booked already, so keep your eyes on my website to see where I'm speaking and when and lets have some more fun together!!
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