The Conversation Project is a US based project to encourage people to think ahead, talk and share thoughts and plans for end of life.

Here’s why they think it matters.

According to a survey by the California HealthCare Foundation:

• 60% of people say that making sure their family is not burdened by tough decisions is “extremely important”
• 56% have not communicated their end-of-life wishes

Ellen Goodman set up the Conversation Project in 2010 after a meeting with medical professionals, clergy and others to share stories of “good deaths” and “bad deaths” within their own circle of loved ones.

The team at The Conversation Project believe talking can make all the difference so they are doing all they can to encourage at least one conversation.

They’ve devised a Starter Kit to get the conversation going because they realise how hard it can be. The Kit’s designed to help you think through things first then talk to another person to share your important thoughts about end of life.

This isn’t about legal or formal documents like an Advance Decision. It’s just about talking to your nearest and dearest about what you and they want for end-of-life – what matters to you and how you’d like to be cared for.

It’s really important that you have important conversations with those closest to you. One in 4 of us die unexpectedly and for many, there’s a trajectory from life to death that’s all too tragically predictable … a period of decline and then death. And despite the fact that all this happens over and over again in society, many of us approach living and dying completely unprepared.

If you care about how you lived your life, you’ll probably care about how you end it. So it’s up to you to share your thoughts.

At Final Fling we like to get you in the mood long before death’s likely to come a-knocking. That’s why we provide Life Planning Tools to let you engage in the light along with the heavier. One day you might just be capturing a track you love in your Memory Box (really important in connection to sustaining memory in life) another you might be posting on your Bucket List and the next week capturing in your funeral Wishes that you’d like wild flowers sewn in your memory. It just becomes normal and easy to be thinking about these things. And then the next natural step is to talk to others. You can get them in the swing by inviting them into your Network and sharing your posts on Final Fling with them. It’s free to do.