Molly Carlile

Molly is a published author and presenter and holds a number of senior leadership and management roles in the palliative care sector. Currently Consortium Manager of the North and West Metropolitan Region Palliative Care Consortium, Molly has post graduate qualifications and extensive clinical experience in advanced practice nursing, counselling, education and management. She has a passion for empowering health professionals to be insightful and compassionate leaders as well as competent clinicians and is committed to encouraging community engagement with issues of life, death and grief. Her roles have enabled Molly to establish a process of supervision, self care and staff support for staff members from a range of disciplines. Molly has a firm commitment to the philosophy of holistic care for clients and holistic self care for professionals.

Molly has worked in a range of environments from acute metropolitan health services to designated inpatient units and the community, both rural and regional. She has lectured widely in the University sector and was course co-ordinator for the Graduate Diploma in Grief and Loss at Victoria University.

Molly’s private consultancy practice has seen her provide consultancy, education and project management for a wide range of clients including Victoria and Monash Universities, Victorian Department of Human Services, Palliative Care Victoria and numerous metropolitan and regional Palliative Care consortia.

Molly’s true passion has evolved from years of caring for dying patients and their families. The consistent feelings of isolation expressed by them highlighted to Molly the importance of educating the general community in preparation for significant loss. Her frustration with the lack of community engagement in discussions about death and grief has driven Molly to explore alternate approaches to raising community awareness. To this end she has embraced a number of varied approaches to “get people talking”.

Publications and Presentations

Molly is a published author in a variety of formats:

• “Jelly Bean’s Secret” was published in 2005 by Innovative Resources www.innovativeresources.org. This children’s novella tells the story of a family dealing with sudden illness and death and contains a Learning Guide to support parents, counselors and teachers in exploring the themes addressed in the book with children in a way that demystifies the concepts of death and grief. Molly is currently writing a book for adolescents on grief due for publication in mid 2010.

• Nurse Managers: A Guide to Practice (2nd edn) editor Dr Andrew Crowther. Ausmed Publications. 2008. Molly wrote Chapter 1: The Nurse Manager which outlines the challenges faced by new managers and some strategies to develop effective management skills while being self aware and building personal resilience.

• Palliative Care Nursing: A Guide to Practice. (3rd edn) Ausmed Publications. Under development a chapter on Grief and Bereavement for 2010 publication.

• Multiple published articles have appeared in the following professional journals and community media:

o Nursing Review

o NEXUX (Journal of the Royal College of Nursing Australia)

o Palliative Care Australia Journal (published by Palliative Care Australia)

o Auseinetter: The Journal of the National Mental Health Strategy. Publisher: Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

o Leaders with a Life magazine

o The Great Southern Star (Leader papers)

o The Sentinel Times (Leader papers)

o The Age (Fairfax papers)

• Molly has been a frequent guest on radio and television speaking on the topics of death, children and death, grieving, spirituality and building community including:

o 774 ABC, Melbourne “Drive” with Lindy Burns. Two 30 minute interviews.

o ABC radio “Life Matters” with Julie McCrossin. Two 30 minute interviews.

o Network 10. Celebrate Easter Television Special,

o Christmas Night on 3AW Co-hosting a two hour Christmas special with Peter Thomas.

o Win News Victoria interview by Anita Sammitt.

o Radio National. 20 minute interview.

o Peter Thomas on 3AW. Hour interview.

o Peter Thomas on 3AW. Hour interview

o ABC Gippsland. 30 minute interview

• Molly produced and hosted a weekly one hour interview program on The Podcast Network (2004-2006) called “Dead Serious” which addressed issues of spirituality, life, death and how we make meaning.

• Molly has recently collaborated with celebrated actor and playwright, Alan Hopgood in the production of “Four Funerals in One Day” a play that explores the role of storytelling in the lives of dying patients and their carers. Molly convenes an interactive audience forum at the completion of each performance that enables audiences to actively participate in conversations about the themes raised in the play.

• Molly has developed and presented over 45 two day seminar programs nationally for Ausmed Inc. www.ausmed.com.au since 2005. Compassionate leadership, creative management and accountable governance in addition to life and death are the major themes Molly has focused on in the seminar program. Examples of seminar topics include:

o Counselling in terminal illness

o Symptom management in terminal illness

o End of life care

o Spirituality in Nursing

o Leading with Emotional Intelligence

o Dealing with Disruptive Staff Behaviours

o Conflict Management

o Teaching and Mentoring

o Compassionate Management

o Corporate and Clinical Governance

o Performance Management

• Molly is a regular keynote presenter at both national and international conferences. She has the capacity to speak on a wide variety of topics and is always keen to creatively engage with audiences.

Molly is the recipient of a 2008 Churchill Fellowship, which she received at Government House on July 18th 2008. Her Fellowship saw her travel to the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland in 2009 to explore health promotion strategies utilising the performance, creative and visual arts. Her project, “Using the arts to support community death discussions” is a further demonstration of her passion for encouraging communities to talk about death and grief. Her report has been circulated widely to local, state and national government representatives.

Molly was awarded an inaugural Arts and Health Australia Award for Health Promotion in 2009 in recognition of her work in utilising the arts as a vehicle for promoting health and wellness in the community, particularly regarding healthy attitudes to death and grief.

Molly’s interest in ‘new media’ and its ability to engage young people in exploring issues of life and death has led her to establish an interactive Blog in addition to moderating personal pages on a number of social networking sites. She has recorded a number of filmed interviews for both her personal website and for Palliative Care Victoria, http://www.pallcarevic.asn.au/-pepa/podcasts speaking about engaging with children when a family member is dying and effective communication with grieving families.

Molly is an articulate and entertaining author and speaker who challenges her audiences to explore their personal values, their views on life and death and their understanding of altruism and empathy. In this capacity, Molly promotes personal reflection, empowerment and compassion as essential tools to developing rewarding personal and professional relationships and ultimately to contributing positively to society.

2008 Churchill Fellow

Fellow Royal College of Nursing Australia

Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD)

Associate Fellow Australian College of Health Service Executives (ACHSE)

Accredited Grief and Loss Counsellor, Educator and Supervisor with the National Association for Loss and Grief (NALAG)

Accredited Reiki Master/Teacher (ARC Inc.)

Graduate member of the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors (AIPC)

Accredited Counsellor, Supervisor, Member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA)

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