This week, from the 5th to the 11th of May, is Dying Matters Awareness Week. It’s a yearly opportunity for people around the UK to encourage their communities to start conversations about death and dying in whatever way that works for them.
We often don’t have the right language to talk about death and it can mean that not everyone gets the support they need. By encouraging healthy conversations about death and dying, we can work towards breaking down the stigma and taboo related to death.
This year’s theme is ‘The Culture of Dying Matters’. We all talk about death and dying in many ways, but we often share a common thread. This year we are concentrating on how different communities and cultures in the UK feel, talk about, and deal with death, and what brings us together.
How do we view death and dying in agriculture? What brings our community together? What makes us similar or different to other communities? We can all feel the impact of loss – do we as individuals experience it differently to each other within the farming community?
The DPJ Foundation’s Understanding Bereavement and Grief training is one way of talking about the death in a safe, supported way. It is a free online session that aims to increase our confidence in supporting those in our communities through bereavement, by recognising the signs of grief and knowing where to find specialist help.
This month’s session is on Tuesday, 20th of May, at 9.30am – you can book your free place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/understanding-bereavement-and-grief-by-the-dpj-foundation-tickets-1342781247859
Why not take the opportunity this week to talk about death in a way that works for you – start a conversation you might have been avoiding and see if you can work through your worries about saying the ‘wrong’ thing. Our training in a fortnight’s time may very well help you build on the conversations you have this week – we hope to see you there.
