Category: Podcasts

Since 2016, he has worked with Frome Medical Practice in Somerset, UK to develop a new model of primary care combined with compassionate communities, one of the most effective therapeutic tools we have in improving length of life and well-being. The health outcomes of this model have been dramatic, with this being the first intervention that has been effective in reducing population emergency admissions. 

Along with Professor Allan Kellehear, Dr. Abel formed Compassionate Communities UK, which he is Director with a mandate to develop the broader rollout of compassionate communities in both primary care and end-of-life care. Projects are underway in multiple areas in the UK, and several international cities. 

Dr. Abel is joint author of The Compassion Project, along with the prize-winning novelist Lindsay Clarke. The book describes the background to the Frome Project, its implementation and the wider implications of the application of compassion both in medicine and in society at large.

He has published regularly on models of public health palliative care, is an international keynote speaker, appears in media and runs a podcast, Survival of the Kindest.

He will also be speaking at the Elevate compassion virtual summit. You can register to attend the summit for free here.

Honors and Awards

• SLU Scholarly Works Award (for the book The Crisis of US Hospice Care)
• Emerald Literati Award for Excellence (for the article “Putting the ‘Right to Die’ in its Place: Disability Rights and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Context of US End-of-Life Care”) 2019
• Bicentennial Fellowship, Saint Louis University 2017
• Graduate Student Essay Prize, University of Chicago Program in Medicine and Religion 2013
• Irving K. Zola Prize for Emerging Scholars in Disability Studies, Society for Disability Studies 2011
• Hastings Center Report Young Scholar Essay Contest, Hastings Center 2010

Community Work and Service

• Board of Directors, Gateway End-of-Life Coalition  
• Board of Directors, VOYCE (a long-term care ombudsman organization) 

Daniel is passionate about helping people deal with what’s going on in their  lives. Depending on the setting that means embracing their mortality, coping with hospitalization or maintaining combat readiness.