11th-17th May 2020 marks Dying Matters Awareness Week.  This week is run by Dying Matters, and their tagline is “let’s talk about it”.  This is reflected in this year’s theme, which is “dying to be heard” – encouraging us to talk more about our plans for our death and our thoughts about dying, as well as providing us all with helpful tips for having these conversations.

Here at Your Space, we know how important conversation is to our wellbeing – it helps us connect with people, learn new ideas and perspectives and generally understand more about what it means to human.  Talking about death can reduce the fear and stigma surrounding it, and these conversations encourage us to focus on what is important in our life.

Talking about death and dying is something may of us struggle with, but it needn’t be.  Watch our short video for some suggestions on how best to hold (and listen to) conversations about death.

Content warnings: death, terminal illness, suicide.  Please be mindful of how you are feeling before watching this content, and consider what support you may need after viewing as these are emotive topics.

Helpful resources:

If you are feeling suicidal please call Samaritans on 116 123 (UK + ROI) – it’s a free service available 24/7 throughout the year.

Talking about and preparing for death

Grief and bereavement

Bereavement by suicide

Recommended links:

If you’re interested in exploring death and grief in more depth, check out the Grief Series by local artist and performance maker Ellie Harrison – https://www.griefseries.co.uk/

#DyingToBeHeard #DyingMattersAwarenessWeek