In this episode it is my pleasure to talk with Professor Julian Abel. Julian became a consultant in palliative care in 2001 and was Vice President of Public Health Palliative Care International. He is an international keynote speaker and has published regularly on models of public health palliative care.  We talk about his new work in the National End of Life Care Coalition and explore a community based approach to care and why this is so important.

This episode has been kindly supported by the Living Well Dying Well Trust. The creation, development and content of the episode remains the responsibility of Clare Fuller.

Key messages

• The need for a population-based, equity-focused approach to death, dying, loss, and caregiving is identified and the value of asset-based community development and neighbourhood-level work.

• Julian explains the concept of reframing end of life as a social issue with a medical component, not the other way round

• The importance of death literacy and the need to make invisible community supports visible and connected is highlighted

• Julian provides a critique of traditional Advance Care Planning focused on place of care and treatment choices

• A shift to “what does living well mean?” for the person and their web of relationships is explored

• I learn that the social impact of death is similar regardless of cause (cancer, suicide, accident, disaster, etc.)

• Julian provides an example of compassionate community care in action, talking through the PSG Ultras extraordinary response by where the Ultras unfurled a gigantic banner to honor the late daughter of manager Luis Enrique

• Concerns about a system that equates palliative care with services only, ignoring community supports are identified

• Julian explains the the National End of Life Care Coalition and its aims

• There is evidence that good social relationships and kindness are biologically powerful for health and longevity

• Encouragement of everyday acts of kindness and “activated citizens” through Talk Listen Connect

• Closing message: a good life and a good death are rooted in kindness, compassion, and relationships, not professional tick-boxes

Resource

• Talk Listen Connect facilitates groups where meaningful and constructive conversations thrive Talk Listen Connect

• Access What Matters Most Conversations 

• Read Advance care planning re-imagined: a needed shift for COVID times and beyond 

• Find our more about the National End of Life Care Coalition 

• Access Funeral Experts information 

• Asset Based Community Development information

• Podcast available:  Advance Care Planning in a relational context with Dr Julian Abel 

• Podcast available:  Survival of the Kindest

Bio

Professor Julian Abel became a consultant in palliative care 2001, working initially at a district general hospital and a hospice. For more than 15 years he has become increasingly involved in finding ways of building compassionate communities around people at end of life. He has run projects at local, regional and national levels. He was Vice President of Public Health Palliative Care International. He is an international keynote speaker and has published regularly on models of public health palliative care. He and Professor Allan Kellehear are the editors of the Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care. He and Allan Kellehear have a further book published on 12/5/2026, entitled Well Being at End of Life – Reimagining Palliative Care. 

Professor Abel is joint author of The Compassion Project, along with the prize winning novelist Lindsay Clarke. The book describes the background to the Frome Project, its implementation and the wider implications of the application of compassion both in medicine and in society at large. He runs a podcast, Survival of the Kindest about compassion, its presence, its absence and the consequences of both. 

Since 2016 he worked with Frome Medical Practice in Somerset in developing a new model of primary care combined with compassionate communities. The health outcomes of this model have been dramatic, with this being the first intervention that has been effective in reducing whole population emergency admissions. Compassionate communities is one of the most effective therapeutic tools we have in improving length of life and well being. 

He is visiting Professor at the University of Northumbria Newcastle.