"Whose death is it anyway?" - Dublin Public Meeting 16.09.09

THE MORE YOU KNOW ABOUT DEATH AND DYING, THE LESS YOU WORRY 

Kellehear encourages public health approach  

Professor Allan Kellehear, an international expert on death and dying, has said that providing services for the dying is not enough. He told a public meeting, and the RTE’s Pat Kenny Show, that broad public health approach which encouraged people to look after them selves and other people was required. 

Professor Kellehear, of the Centre for Death & Society at the University of Bath, was in Dublin on Wednesday September 16, 2009.  His topic was “Whose Death it is Anyway?”  The talk, from which people had to be turned away because of the numbers, was in the Fitzwilliam Hotel. It was organised by the Forum on End of Life in Ireland.  

Professor Kellehear said that a health promotion policy was needed which encouraged communities to look after their dying family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues. 

A direct service response from the State was, at best, a partial solution and at worst, no solution at all.  

Under a public health approach, people with life-limiting illnesses would be supported to take positive measures to live with their condition and palliative care services would engage with schools and workplaces on issues around death and dying.  The public would be educated on how to live healthily, what to expect when grieving and how to support the bereaved in their community.   

He stated: “If you don’t develop a health promotion approach, you are guaranteed that you will have to build more health services which are expensive and less service led.  You will end up taking up support services which you would normally have to buy and are not as good.  A social worker at the door is not as good as a friend.” 

He continued: “The more you know and understand about death and dying, the less you worry and the less depressed you get.  There is a lot to know about living with life-limiting illnesses - it does not mean a death sentence.  The more knowledge we have, the more we can support the bereaved and ourselves.”  Please click here for copy of full speech Speech by Prof. Kellehear.doc (0.05 MB, MS Word)