If you find thinking about, talking about, planning for and encountering death pretty scary, you aren’t alone. We are committed to making it easier, kinder, less frightening and crucially not just in the hands of professionals – more in our own hands too.
Five years ago Living Well Dying Well (LWDW) began to address these issues, and continues to with LWDW Training. In that time we have run many courses for people facing death (actually that’s all of us!) or the death of someone close, and offered workshops for therapists and health practitioners, so they feel more comfortable around death in their professional life.
, or companions, who have trained with us love the idea of people-meeting-people, they know how even in the midst of dying and death, compassionate support and friendship networks can be created, helping families in the smallest ways feel better able to cope.
We are grateful for the expertise of
was set up in 2009 by the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) to promote public awareness of dying, death and bereavement. Its mission is “to support changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards death, dying and bereavement, and through this to make ‘living and dying well’ the norm”.
“It seems to be becoming increasingly difficult to die a natural death. We have medical interventions capable of prolonging life, but poor discussion and decision-making around their appropriate use. We have CPR (resuscitation) as a knee-jerk reaction to death, even among the frail elderly. Is that how we want it to be?
I firmly believe that death is one of the most important of life’s events and should be held with the same reverence as birth. Sadly it seems that death has become predominantly a medical event – do we need or want it to be that way? We are hearing of a growing number of people who don’t want any kind of interference – this is also true for me. I want to be relieved of any pain and to be made comfortable – but having lived my life, if at all possible I want to live my death – to take ownership of it.
Hermione has a background in nursing, midwifery, counselling, palliative care and training and is the founder of Living Well, Dying Well. She has worked internationally and lived in Japan for four years, where her book Gan No Serufu Hiringu, a self-help guide for people with cancer, was published. She is passionate about care of the whole person – physical, emotional and spiritual – and about upholding dignity and self-determination at every stage of life.
Athina’s career has been in education and training, as a teacher and advisory teacher through all stages and ages. She also studied counselling. The deaths of her parents and close friends brought her into contact with the various aspects of death and dying and, eventually, to Living Well Dying Well. She is particularly interested in community approaches, capacity building and developing our social capital.
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We encourage reflection on how to live life fully, while planning and preparing for the end of life. Our courses, training, conversations and services help people think about it, talk about it and plan for it, in a safe and supportive way.
