‘Dining With Death’ – Conversation Menus as a Means of Educating People About Death, Dying and Bereavement

Abstract

There is growing consensus that palliative care encompasses a ‘health promoting’ element concerned with encouraging openness about death in society so that people are aware of ways to live and support each other with death, dying and bereavement. A general societal reluctance to engage with these issues makes it harder for clinicians to initiate timely discussions with patients about their end of life care wishes.However, finding ways to educate wider society in issues relating to death and dying can be problematic in a culture where raising these issues is variously perceived as too morbid, too difficult or too sensitive to mention.This poster describes theDining with Deathmenu and some of the settings in which it has been used, exploring its potential as an experiential learning tool to enable people to become more open about discussing death and dying.TheDining with Deathconversation menu is a folded piece of A4 card, printed with three ‘courses’ of suggested conversation topics, for example ‘Cremation or burial?’; and ‘What would be in your death plan?’.The menu was first used November 2011, with 60 individuals from various organisations, who had been invited to a restaurant lunch to mark the launch ofGood Life, Good Death, Good Grief.Since then,Dining with Deathhas been used to facilitate discussions at education events for health professionals and two ‘death cafes’ atJust Festival.These events indicate the menu has potential as a learning tool: it can be used flexibly, across different types of events and different audiences; it overcomes barriers to engagement in death discussions by intriguing participants and engaging them in non-threatening conversations through which they can learn from their own and others' experience. There is potential for further evaluation and development of theDining with Deathmenu in the future.

The impact of a new public health approach to end-of-life care: A systematic review

“…31,32 Others still focus on awareness, education and training of community members directly in topics such as writing a will and advance care planning 33,34 or efforts to explore society's perception of the issues through local or national conversation. [35][36][37] Policy examples exist where lobbying from local services and communities has led to policy reform 38 and the emergence of dementia-friendly communities is an example of how the environment may be manipulated to improve experiences of those living with life-limiting illnesses. 39 Although a range of practice exists under the heading of health-promoting end-of-life care, a dominant interpretation has been through the strengthening community action pillar of the Ottawa Charter, involving community engagement, participation or development and often described using the phrase 'compassionate communities'.…”

Do Healthy People Engage With Education About Death, Dying and Advance Care Planning? An Early Evaluation of the Omega Course

“…Even younger respondents, as in other studies, acknowledged the need for ACP in case of sudden illness or incapacity left family with distressing decisions and uncertainty. 23,27 ‘ The value of planning is partly about increasing knowledge, developing realistic expectations and so being better prepared to adapt and respond to circumstances as they evolve.’ p. 39 A Road Less Lonely 28 …”

“…‘ The value of planning is partly about increasing knowledge, developing realistic expectations and so being better prepared to adapt and respond to circumstances as they evolve.’ p. 39 A Road Less Lonely 28…”

Bereaved participants’ reasons for wanting their real names used in thanatology research

“…There is a proliferation of literature on the perceived importance of openness when dealing with thanatological matters (see, for example, Gorer, 1955; Jacobsen, 2013; Jalland, 2013; Walter, 1996). Recently, this has expanded to the public domain, for instance with some popular venues inviting death-centred discourse in ‘death cafés’ (and related menus) (Patterson and Hazelwood, 2014). Schafer (2014: 2) argues that ‘openness’ is implicitly associated with ‘honesty’ and ‘authenticity’, which leads to a more ‘therapeutic’ form of bereavement practice and the ‘natural expression of emotion’.…”