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Dying Matters Week 2025
Report from Gemma Norburn RSciTech MAAPT on The Culture of Dying Matters
Every year, Hospice UK host a weeklong event known as Dying Matters which is used to encourage people to open up and speak about death with each other in whatever way works for them. Each year has a theme which people can use to hold their own events and this year the focus was ‘The Culture of Dying Matters’. This is a great opportunity for people and institutions to hold events, and to meet each other and discuss death and dying.
On Tuesday 6th May I held a stall outside of the main entrance of the hospital with various sources of information for people to use and read.
It was a cold and blustery day, and I had to weigh down a lot of the leaflets on the table with books or other items I had thankfully thought to bring with me. However, a few people did stop by, most likely enticed by the cakes and sweets I had to offer but also to talk about death for a brief while. One person shared their experiences of bereavement while another discussed their own fears around death. I only managed to brave two and a half hours out in the cold, and I was very grateful to one of the End of Life Care Facilitators who bought me a coffee, but I escaped back into the warmth of the hospital around lunchtime.
This stall was staffed by other areas of the hospital throughout the week and was a great way of reaching out to other staff and the public as they passed.
In addition to the stall, I also hosted two of my ‘Cake & Death’ events where I encourage people to speak about death and dying but invite along a guest speaker who people can then ask questions to. On Thursday 8th May I hosted an event at Queen’s Hospital and a very impressive 18 people turned up. Luckily enough I had just enough cake for everyone!
I had been approached by a community End of Life Care Facilitator who had agreed to discuss her experiences in caring for those with specific religious and cultural needs. A great conversation unfolded from her initial talk about caring for a patient who was a Rastafarian and we discussed a number of points relating to respecting someone’s culture.
It was really interesting to see this discussion develop and watch people share their experiences in treating people and how their religions or cultures impacted it. The key take away points from this were to try to communicate as much as possible, to remember to treat everyone as an individual with their own needs and ensure that the patient feels heard while also making no assumptions about anyone’s requirements due to their culture or religion.
I was really pleased to have been a part of this again this year and I look forward to next year!