NewsHub 20 August 2016 Family First Comment: “The findings also showed people who excessively smoke cannabis die earlier than those addicted to alcohol or tobacco.”
A new study shows homeless people die 20 years earlier than those living in a home.
The study found homeless people in Auckland die at an average age of 63.
Researcher Simon Thornley says drugs were revealed as a key factor in the shortened lifestyle.
“A lot of them have issues with addiction, whether that’s alcohol, tobacco, cannabis – and I think addiction issues mean that you don’t prioritise looking after yourself,” he says.
Lecretia Seales lives on in a health inquiry into euthanasia that kicks off this week Stuff co.nz 20th August 2016
On Wednesday Vickers will be the first of 1800 people to speak to a parliamentary inquiry into euthanasia, instigated by a petition in the name of former Labour MP Maryan Street and the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.
The petition, which garnered 8795 signatures and cross-party support, came in the wake of Seales death.
It demanded the committee examine public opinion on the introduction of legislation “which would permit medically-assisted dying in the event of a terminal illness or an irreversible condition which makes life unbearable”.
More than 21,000 submissions later – the most ever received by any select committee – Vickers will pull up a seat at 8am in front of a panel of MPs to explain Lecretia’s story.
But Amanda Landers, a clinician consultant, researcher and chair of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Care has spent 10 years caring for those who are terminally ill and she sees it differently.
“In the last decade I’ve witnessed about 5000 deaths and what you hear from the media and public isn’t what you hear from most people at the end of their life, it’s almost in direct contrast.”
“The voice of the well are the people who say, my body my choice,” she says.
When people are in their final weeks and days it’s their family, pets and community they worry about – “they think less and less about themselves”.
Landers says people talk about palliative care not working for everybody – that’s a concept she says doesn’t actually make any sense.
“It’s not a medicine that can work or not work, it’s an approach … most of the time just being there with them is what they need.”
Seales was cared and comforted for in her final days but as to whether she would have made the choice to end her life, Vickers says it wasn’t an option on the table.
Stuff co.nz 19 August 2016 Family First Comment: Go Michael! (a member of our Board of Reference )
Labour has enlisted two former All Blacks in a bid to take down legislation which would let shops open on Easter Sundays.
Michael Jones and Aiolupotea Tonu’u have called on Pacific MPs to vote against the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill, saying it would stop some in the Pacific community from spending the religious holiday with their church and families.
The legislation would allow local councils to decide whether or not to open their doors on Easter Sunday.
The bill narrowly passed its most recent test on Wednesday night by 62 votes to 59.
Jones, a devout Christian who did not play test matches on Sundays during his career, said in a statement that Easter Sunday was an important day in the Christian calendar.
Rugby stars lobby against Easter trading changes NZ Herald 19 August 2016
Two former All Blacks are putting pressure on Pacific Island MPs to vote against law changes which will allow shops to open on Easter Sunday.
Former rugby stars Michael Jones and Aiolupotea Tonu’u said today that the law change could harm Pacific workers who had obligations to their churches and families on the religious holiday.
They are appealing directly to Pacific MPs in Parliament to cast their vote against the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill when it returns to Parliament.
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