The Groundswell Project is an Australian not-for-profit that’s socialised conversations around end of life for over a decade, and their ‘Dying to Know Day’ campaign encourages people to come together during August every year to do just that.
The aim is to motivate everyday people, healthcare organisations & employers to create space for these conversations to happen.
Newcastle Event
An event will be held in Newcastle on Sunday 8 August 2021.
A variety of speakers and exhibitors including Good Grief and Seasons for Growth loss and grief representatives will be available from 10 am to 4 pm at The Belford Function Centre, 35 Belford St Broadmeadow. Gold coin entry. Coffee, tea, snacks available. Enquiries 0411 165 914.
Why are we doing this?
Quite simply, we understand this is a tough conversation to have. Dealing with a life limiting diagnosis and death is traumatic enough, but if we don’t connect through one of humanity’s only shared experiences, the emotional trauma can last years, and even through generations.
And we’ve had enough of that. If COVID has taught us anything, it’s that we all need connection.
So this year it’s all about talking, connecting, and giving people courage to broach the subject of end of life and death, because the rewards are nothing short of life changing.
Preparing an end-of-life plan, for example, helps those you leave behind honour your final wishes. A plan, in many ways like a birth plan, lays out your choices based on your values, ensuring you depart this world on your own terms.
And the very act of sharing hopes & fears before we are in that emotional moment, can create connections that simply wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The sharing of lived stories, long forgotten dreams & regrets, even passing on the knowledge of what matters most, in the final moments of our lives.
All of this lost, if we don’t start the conversation when we’re well.
Some compelling statistics:
- Over 70% of Australians want to die at home, but only 14% actually do. Why? It takes planning and people to help to die at home.
- 75% of people have not discussed end of life with their families
- 45% of Australians die without even having a will in place!
- 92% of deaths are expected. Yet despite the knowledge of what’s coming, only 28% have actually had this most important conversation with loved ones
So let’s act together, and make space for death like we used to. If you’d like to help us shift that 28%, please share our story. And if you do so, we’ll be eternally grateful.