By Mark Hazelwood
What did you watch on TV last night? Did you see Freaky Eaters, a programme exploring the needs of people with dietary difficulties? Or perhaps you chose to watch Embarrassing Diseases, Channel 4’s exploration of flatulence, abscesses and pathological shyness?
A quick glance through the TV listings could lead you to believe that we live in the post-taboo age when anything and everything is not only open for discussion but is also considered prime-time material.
But does this new universal openness stretch to death, dying and bereavement? Apparently not, as 74 per cent of the Scottish public have not discussed with anyone their wishes about care towards the end of life. Only 35 per cent have made a will. Recently the last months, hours, minutes and death of Michael Jackson saturated the airways and gave us a topic around the water cooler. The assisted suicide debate is rehearsed from time to time. But we are less comfortable reflecting on our own mortality. As the French philosopher La Rochefoucauld put it: “Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye…”.
But why does this matter? At some level we all know that death will happen to us, so why would we want to think any further or even talk about it? Surely there is nothing we can do which will change this most fundamental certainty?
A new broadbased alliance called Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief believes that being more open about death, dying and bereavement is a good thing. Death is normal: 55,000 people die in Scotland every year. So death affects us all, and dealing with death, dying and bereavement is something everyone has to do – it is not just the job of the health and social care sector and funeral directors.
If we become more open as a society about death we can achieve positive change. We can talk to or listen to a friend or colleague who is dying or who has been bereaved and we can reduce their isolation. We can make a will and power of attorney and reduce the risk that our family is left with complications and financial problems. We can think about and communicate preferences for care and treatment options towards the end of life, helping the NHS to provide the care we actually want – and, for example, increase the chances of our dying at home. A recent Scottish study of patients and GPs who planned ahead provides evidence that this is the case.
Given more openness, there are things we can all do to help each other and help ourselves with death, dying and bereavement.
This is a key challenge for policymakers, too. With a rapidly ageing population and an increasingly resource-constrained health service, a change in societal attitudes could be the single most powerful way to improve Scots’ experience of death, dying and bereavement. Scotland could become “the best country in the world in which to die”. Now there’s an interesting title for a TV programme about an extraordinary yet ordinary part of every person’s existence…
Mark Hazelwood is the director of the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and spokesperson for Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief.
Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day
No related posts.