Facing death differently: revolutionising our approach to death and grief
Despite growing public interest in death, support for end-of-life care and bereavement remains inadequate. We urgently need a community centred, public health approach to the social processes of dying and grieving, backed by properly funded palliative care, writes Lucy Selman Over 600 000 people die each year in the UK,1 leaving more than six million grieving.2 On the surface, attitudes to death seem to be shifting: witness the rise of death and grief cafés,3 festivals and annual awareness events,4567891011 and the formation, in 2018, of a national association of end-of-life doulas.12 Television shows, films, and books about dying and grieving proliferate. A BBC video by the palliative care doctor, author, and activist Kathryn Mannix, “Dying is Not as Bad as You Think,” has had 145 000 views.13 But beneath the surface are major gaps in public knowledge and confidence around death, meaning that the practical, emotional, and spiritual wishes of dying people often remain unexpressed and u
