Compassionate communities are communities that provide assistance for those in need of end of life care, separate from any official heath service provision that may already be available within the community. This idea was developed in 2005 in Allan Kellehear’s seminal volume- Compassionate Cities: Public Health and End of Life Care. In the ensuing ten years the theoretical aspects of the idea have been continually explored, primarily rehearsing academic concerns rather than practical ones.

Compassionate Communities: Case Studies from Britain and Europe provides the first major volume describing and examining compassionate community experiments in end of life care from a highly practical perspective. Focusing on community development initiatives and practice challenges, the book offers practitioners and policy makers from the health and social care sectors practical discussions on the strengths and limitations of such initiatives. Furthermore, not limited to providing practice choices the book also offers an important and timely impetus for other practitioners and policy makers to begin thinking about developing their own possible compassionate communities.

An essential read for academic, practitioner, and policy audiences in the fields of public health, community development, health social sciences, aged care, bereavement care, and hospice & palliative care, Compassionate Communities is one of only a handful of available books on end of life care that takes a strong health promotion and community development approach.

Klaus Wegleitner is Assistant Professor, Institute of Palliative Care and Organisational Ethics, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF Vienna), Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Vienna, Austria.

Katharina Heimerl is Associate Professor and Head, Institute of Palliative Care and Organisational Ethics, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF Vienna), Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Vienna, Austria.

Allan Kellehear is 50th Anniversary Chair – Professor of End-of-Life Care, University of Bradford, UK.