Lets talk about death and dying.
As part of Dying Matters Awareness Week, we have been raising awareness at Workington Community Hospital with a dedicated pop-up stand.
Staff have been on hand to speak with visitors about our services, what we offer for patients and families, and why dying matters.
Dying Matters is a national campaign led by the charity Hospice UK.
It aims to break the stigma around death by encouraging open discussions about dying, death, and grief.
Nearly a third of people (27 per cent) find it difficult to discuss death with loved ones, while 30 per cent admit to bottling up their feelings, according to recent polling by Celebration Day.
Without these conversations, coping with loss and bereavement can become even more challenging.
We provide home nursing, specialist lymphoedema care and family and bereavement support. The family and bereavement team offers support to patients with a palliative diagnosis believed to be in the last 12 months of life and their families before and after bereavement. Services include emotional support to help with coping, loss, grief, and bereavement through one-to-one and group sessions.
A service user of Hospice at Home West Cumbria said:
Having a toolkit of suggestions and practices to be able to do independently at home or at work, to be able to join together with people who are in a similar situation. The staff have been welcoming and very understanding and supportive. Attending the group has enabled me to continue with day to day life.
This Dying Matters Awareness Week is focusing on the importance of conversations about death and dying – with family, friends, employers, anyone in your life – helping people to get the conversation started.
