Join us to find out what Living Well has got to do with Dying Matters

• 28 April 2021

Arthur Rank Hospice is hosting a series of thought-provoking talks and conversations around death, dying and bereavement, helping to tackle this prevailing taboo.

Dying Matters Awareness Week

Dying Matters Awareness Week (10-16 May 2021) is a national campaign which traditionally runs every May, encouraging people to talk about death, dying and bereavement. In conjunction with this campaign, Arthur Rank Hospice is delighted to host a series of informative and inspirational talks and open, online sessions to get us all talking more about this important subject.

Katherine Goller, Joint Team Lead for Living Well Service, explains why Arthur Rank Hospice is supporting Dying Matters Awareness Week:

“As health care professionals working in the Living Well Service of our Hospice we want to support Dying Matters week. Although our service is called the ‘Living Well’ Service we very much see our role as not only supporting people to live well but to die well too. 

We believe that how we live and how we die does matter and we want to be part of that conversation both with our patients and those important to them but also our wider community.”

Online Sessions

The online interactive sessions will be delivered by the Living Well team from Arthur Rank Hospice and collaborative guest speakers, and will run from Tuesday 11 May – Friday 14 May from 2.00-3.00pm. Please note you are invited to dip in and out of the hourly sessions if you are not able to stay the duration.

The programme includes:

• Conversation with Death – a creative writing workshop with A Cambridge Good Death Project and Katherine Goller, Joint Team Leader at Living Well Service at Arthur Rank Hospice on Tuesday 11 May from 2.00-3.00pm.
• Living Well Sharing Memories – a collaborative session with Faith Macrow, Creative Activities and Life Celebration Coordinator for Living Well Service and Darren Evans and Alex James from After Cloud on Wednesday 12 May from 2.00-3.00pm.
• Open forum/drop in – an opportunity for you to ask any question about death and dying (big or small, happy or sad) with Katherine Goller and Katie Williams, Clinical Nurse Specialist for Living Well Service at Arthur Rank Hospice on Thursday 13 May. Please send your questions to brooke.bond@arhc.org.uk by Monday 10 May at 5.00pm.
• What music would you like at your funeral? – discuss your thoughts and feelings around the music we choose and why, with Katie Williams, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Living Well Service on Friday 14 May.

Katie comments:

“This is a subject that will face us all at some time in our lives and it is so helpful for those we leave if we have given some thought to how we would like our ‘send-off’ to be, including music. This may remind others positively of us, perhaps even to dance or sing along, and may trigger memories. We aim to make these sessions positive, fun and up lifting, but there may of course be tears.”

All the sessions are free to attend but we ask you to register before the event by emailing brooke.bond@arhc.org.uk so we can send you log in details. Please note we plan to record these sessions for future use, please inform us in advance if you would not like us to do so.

Dying Matters Information and Resources

You can also download some interesting and information leaflets such as; Things to do before you die, Supporting bereavement, Let’s talk about dying, Talking about dying with people affected by dementia and Talking about dying with children here.

Make sure that you and your loved ones are in a good place to die – join the Dying Matters movement at www.dyingmatters.org/