To Bratislava for a lecture at the Comenius University (the geographically challenged may need to know that Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, which seceded from the Czech republic in the 1990s, after the economic transition of Balkan.eastern European countries). I discovered that Ryanair is calling Bratislava Vienna, which is obviously charging too much for the masochists’ airline to go there; Vienna is three quarters of an hour on the motorway from Bratislava. And since my last visit in 1993, I find Bratislava has created a lovely restoration of its beautiful central European town centre on the Danube. Really worth a visit, if it weren’t for the British stag parties, who even excited the ire of the students.

Th Comenius University has one of the oldest social work courses set up in the region, post-Communism, with a lively group of students (see photo) and committed group of staff (see other photo). There was a lot of interest in bereavement, although many of the younger students could not imagine spending their lives working with dying people. I spent some time with students working with homeless people. In view of the feeling that services and support was really poor that felt pretty soul-destroying too.

The real satisfaction of palliative care social work, I always think, is the good feedback and the feeling that someone really appreciates what you’ve done and is able to move on because of it – not common in a lot of social work.

Meeting some Comenius students in Bratislava