We live in an age that has lost its understanding of death. A process that was once recognised, acknowledged and accompanied has become a place of loneliness, dread and fear. The fear feeds reluctance to talk; and reluctance to talk holds help at bay.
In the palliative care professions, we are addressing this fear one patient at a time, one family at a time. But what if the public perception could be changed? What if we could restore the forgotten wisdom of the deathbed?
It's time to talk about dying. Not just amongst ourselves; not only at our conferences and in our learned journals. It's time for a public conversation.
For centuries, we have used storytelling to deal with the Big Issues: life, death, transcendence, power, vulnerability. In the final plenary of the 2018 Hospice UK National Conference, Dr Kathryn Mannix made us think about telling stories. How can we distil the truth into a format that brings normal dying out of the darkness? How do we tell the story of dying in a world that turns away?
Негізгі бет Death stories: truth and consolation - Dr Kathryn Mannix
Пікірлер: 9