Friday December 9, 2022
When Palliative Care Nurse, Berni Swinkels began decorating handover bags she could’ve never imagined the impact it would have on others.
When Ms Swinkels was studying Palliative Care through Flinders University, she came across some research that helped her approach her own work in a different way.
“I came across a hospice in Ireland that made handover bags. They were just a bag that they printed a tree of life on and it was a way to give the family a bit of dignity when they receive a patient’s belongings after they’ve passed away.
“I never liked the blue plastic bags we had and handing it over with somebody’s possessions after they’ve died. It’s doesn’t give them a lot of dignity,” she explained.
Before long, Ms Swinkels was surrounded by 200 handover bags in her own living room, all of which she had decorated on her own, by hand.
Soon she had her partner and daughter helping out too, but the work continued growing.
“It was becoming a bit difficult to keep up the demand. I thought it would be great to get a bit of community involvement to help keep it sustainable. So I contacted Aquinas and jumped on board straightaway.”
Aquinas Assistant Principal Tania Grace immediately saw the opportunity as a great way to have students be more active in their local community, but also learn more about the world around them.
“As a Catholic school we value the respect and dignity of all individuals and our mission statement contains six core values, one of which is compassion. If our students can help provide compassion to loved ones experiencing a loss, then they are learning to contribute positively to our community,” Ms Grace said.
Year nine students would decorate handover bags, whilst having classroom discussions around challenging themes such as loss and grief.
“Dignity is a big part of our teachings, however the concept of death is often avoided whether at school or in the broader community. This activity provides an avenue for students to discuss dying from a different perspective.
“The bag activity is not happening as a direct result of a loss of a known person to the students, therefore they can explore the topic without the strong emotions that would be occurring if they were directly grieving,” Ms Grace said.
Students Isabella and Matilda participated in the decorating as part of their end of term activities, finding great value in giving back to the wider community.
“It was a really sweet thing to do, to help make the families who have lost their loved ones feel consoled. It’s a small thing that we could do that would really impact them and make a big change for them,” Isabella said.
“I was really grateful that this activity was brought into our school, and that we are learning from this and giving back into our community because as a community, we are all one and we should be helping one another,” Matilda concluded.