Talking About Death and Dying

It’s not a surprise to know that as a society talking about death is something that we tend to try to avoid thinking about and discussing. We may change the subject, talk about something else, take our minds off it or, even worse, we might try “sweep it under the carpet”. We do this to protect our feelings. We do our best not to feel sad.

We see a person crying and it’s a natural instinct to comfort the person and you may find yourself saying "don't cry, come on, cheer up”. Time then goes by; it could be days or even months that you haven't revisited the conversation that you could have had weeks ago.

Then you may find yourself in a challenging position as you have “buried your head in the sand” and the conversations you should have had months ago are now unavoidable and maybe time is now limited. 

Contents of this mini book:

• Talking about death and dying
  
• Tips for having a conversation about death and dying
  
• Starting a conversation
  
• Keeping the conversation going
  
• Talking about life limiting conditions
  
• Living life to the full
  
• Involve the person
  
• Being open and honest to achieve ‘a good death’
  
• Advice on communicating with the person
  
• Talking with others after a person dies
  
• Emotions that can be experienced:
  
• Emotions that can be experienced:
  
• Using the arch approach to talking about “bad news”