Helen Sawyer
On Thursday 5 April, New Zealanders will be encouraged to think about, talk about, and plan for their future and end-of-life care. Advance Care Planning Day (previously known as Conversations that Count Day) is coordinated by the Health Quality & Safety Commission. It is an ideal time to talk to your whānau/family and others close to you about things like:
- what type of care you would like towards the end of your life;
- where would you want to be cared for if you could no longer care for yourself;
- any particular worries you have about being ill or dying.
You should also talk to your GP or other health care professionals about the medical choices you might have to face in the future.
[Read more…] about Advance Care Planning: What matters to you?


I told myself it wasn’t so bad. After he’d knocked me down, he never kicked me. He never broke bones, never did anything that needed medical attention. In eight years, he forgot discretion only twice. Then I had the black eyes, fat lip, swollen, discoloured face that the world could see. I hid inside, rang in sick, made carefree jokes about walking into cupboard doors.
Who says teenagers don’t talk? I can assure you that they do, at least when you seat them on a sofa across from an interested and patient interviewer who hangs on their every word. They talk – oh yes, they talk. In our research on teens’ life stories, we have some 50-page transcripts of teens talking about their lives.
Bone needs an adequate supply of calcium and phosphate to mineralise properly. Failure of this mineral supply (for any reason) results in defects like osteomalacia (impaired mineralisation of the bone matrix) and osteoporosis (overall low bone mass). In children, inadequate mineralisation causes rickets. There are multiple causes of rickets, but the main one is vitamin D deficiency.


Medical anthropologist Dr Susan Wardell reviews Moon Circle: Rediscover Wildness, Intuition and Sisterhood by Lucy AitkenRead.