Aiman Ali was 14 years old when she learned her father was dying of Cystic Fibrosis. She spent the next three years providing him with palliative care in the family\u2019s Surrey, B.C., home before they moved back to Pakistan, which they felt offered a more supportive community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people, particularly students, don\u2019t have a lot of experience with death, dying, loss and caregiving,\u201d says Ali. \u201cThere are long-lasting impacts for those of us who are going through or have gone through this. These situations can be very lonely and it is important we feel supported.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is one reason why Ali and her Brock University classmate Isabelle Cruz, of Caledon, decided to start the Compassionate Brock initiative, which will host its first community engagement meeting Monday, Jan. 29 at 1 p.m. in Schmon Tower 105.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose of this meeting is to better understand the experiences of the Brock community and take steps towards improvement,\u201d Ali says.<\/p>\n
As fourth-year Public Health students, Ali and Cruz envision a Brock community where faculty, staff and students are comfortable talking about death and know how to support each other through caregiving and bereavement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen what my friends have experienced when someone dies and have learned how hard it is for them to cope, being away from family and having to deal with papers and exams,\u201d says Cruz. \u201cIt can be hard to know how to approach people who are experiencing grief and even harder to know how to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Compassionate Brock initiative is a project of the Interprofessional Education for Quality Improvement Program (I-EQUIP) and is co-supervised by Department of Health Sciences Associate Professor and I-EQUIP Co-Director, Madelyn Law.<\/p>\n
Helping to guide the initiative is alumna Bonnie Tompkins (BPH \u201915), Pallium Canada\u2019s Compassionate Communities National Lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I was attending Brock, my husband was dying from cancer,\u201d explains Tompkins. \u201cI was the primary caregiver, experienced his death in my third year and was grieving myself all while in school. As a result, I really started to see the gap in our systems and started looking at other international systems that are further ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n