Louise Palmer Community Involvement Manager DYING MATTERS Louise Palmer Community Involvement Manager www.dyingmatters.org

End of Life Care Strategy, Department of Health, 2008 “Many consider death to be the last great taboo in our society and ….most of us find it hard to engage in advance with the way in which we would like to be cared for at the end of life.” End of Life Care Strategy, Department of Health, 2008 This includes being able to talk about dying, death and bereavement

Our initial mission “Support changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards death, dying and bereavement, and through this to make ‘living and dying well’ the norm.” www.dyingmatters.org

How do we help? www.dyingmatters.org #BigConversation

Communications www.dyingmatters.org #BigConversation

Website & social media – growing every year During 2015, the Dying Matters website continued its steady trajectory. The website received 1,458,871 page views (compared with 977,792 in 2014 – an increase of 49%) and 554,514 unique visitors (compared with 352,712 in 2014 – an increase of 57%) We have also enjoyed increasing reach through social media. At the end of 2014, we had just over 22,000 followers on Twitter. At the end of 2015, we had just over 33,000. Facebook likes – an increase from 4,200 in January 2015 to 6,179 by December 2015 www.dyingmatters.org

Bereavement www.dyingmatters.org #BigConversation

Dying Matters Awareness Week – The Big Conversation 9th – 15th May 2016 New materials to encourage people to talk and take action Plans to commission research into public attitudes and behaviour Exciting initiatives already planned by members We’re finalising the Dying Matters Annual Debate on the 9th May which the GMC are kindly supporting – more information to follow Watch this space for other announcements which will be made in due course New Partnerships www.dyingmatters.org #BigConversation

Over 32,000 members including Financial services; funeral directors; faith groups; florists; funeral poverty Lawyers; will-writers; financial & family advisors Health & social care Celebrants, doulas, spiritual midwifes Campaigners: bereaved families www.dyingmatters.org

Leaflets Information for older people or people who are ill who would like to start conversations Information for people close to people who are dying about how to start conversation How to talk to children Bereavement Practical list

Work with GPs: Confidence-building training; Find the 1% www.dyingmatters.org

Schools: lesson plan; art projects www.dyingmatters.org

Find Me Help www.dyingmatters.org

Over 100,000 people have watched our films www.dyingmatters.org

DVDs www.ncpc.org.uk

Supporting arts events www.dyingmatters.org

Bereavement & employment campaigns www.dyingmatters.org

Talking about dying 2014... “Lynda Bellingham has passed away, and today I am celebrating her death almost as much as her life...” If that sounds callous I don’t mean it to; it’s just that, in three or so all-too-short weeks, she made dying look manageable. She took a ghastly inevitability and found a way to celebrate. She stood on the edge of a terrifying abyss and gave it two fingers. She met the Grim Reaper, and she decided to tickle him. www.dyingmatters.org

....2016 www.ncpc.org.uk

Supporting people’s choices “The work of the Dying Matters Coalition should be encouraged, supported and sustained... We also support public health approaches to end of life care” www.ncpc.org.uk

Our calls Make a will Make financial plans Plan for your future care & support Record your funeral wishes Consider organ & tissue donation Share your wishes with you loved ones www.dyingmatters.org

What YOU can do Five main things you can do to be ready for Dying Matters Awareness Week and support our work: Organise events and activities for the awareness week and let us know what are planning so we can promote and support - and crucially do feed back afterwards. Order your Dying Matters awareness week resources now Have the conversations to make end of life wishes known and encourage others to do the same Act as ambassadors for Dying Matters – spread the word, tell us your story and encourage others to join and get involved Tweet, blog and post about your events and about Awareness Week as much as possible – and don’t forget to include the hashtag #BigConversation Share your ideas and let us know how we can support you www.dyingmatters.org #BigConversation

For more information about either NCPC or Dying Matters visit www.ncpc.org.uk www.dyingmatters.org Or call NCPC - 020 7697 1520 Dying Matters – FREEPHONE - 08000 2144 66 www.dyingmatters.org #BigConversation