Final Fling wants you to have a ‘good death’, be in control of your choices and decision-making.
There are a number of organisations now dedicated to achieving a better end for us all. Final Fling is just one of them. There are government-funded groups, campaigning bodies and professional bodies. ‘End of life’ and ‘later life’ have worked their way up agendas, into the consciousness of the media and even into Twitter.
Here are some good sources of info.
The Health Experience Research Group (part of Oxford Uni) has a couple of websites that provide very personal views of people about their experiences of health, wellbeing, living and dying. Short films cover a massive range of issues and experiences – nursing, pain control, the needs of carers, where people want to die. The A-Z of covers common conditions like Alzheimers, dementia, MS, Parkinsons, cancer, arthritis and over the next 10 years, they aim to cover at least 100 conditions.
We love this Marie Curie film showing life and death in symmetry; life stages and rites of passage as poignant, powerful, sweetly moving moments to embrace.
A personal perspective
Kate Granger, a young doctor who works in palliative care is living with cancer. Read about her story here. When she was first diagnosed, she wrote The Other Side, a book about her experience of crossing the ward and becoming patient rather than doctor. She has since written another uplifting book The Bright Side about returning to work after treatment and facing end of life with spirit and openness. The proceeds of her books go to the Yorkshire Cancer Centre.
A national perspective
To understand some of the issues around dying, see report:
Campaign and information groups:
Dying Matters – a broad-based coalition of 15,000 members that aims to improve public knowledge and change attitudes and behaviours towards death, dying and bereavement.
Good Life Good Death Grief – Scottish cousins of Dying Matters, a membership alliance of over 700 groups and organisations that are part of the make-death-better movement
Dignity in Dying – working towards change in the law to make assisted dying a right
Compassion in dying – support for assisted dying.
NICE End of Life Care for Adults – Department of Health’s End of Life care quality guidance for health and social care services in England.
For advice on all aspects of dying and bereavement contact the Natural Death Centre.
See our What’s On section for a growing number of workshops, seminars and courses that explore death and society, our feelings and attitudes to death, consider how we manage emotions, communicate on this delicate subject, develop skills to help support someone who is dying, consider how we can make our end of life rituals richer.