The unfolding legacy of Cicely Saunders: 15 years on

Published on: Author: David Clark 2 Comments

Cicely Saunders died on 14th July 2005. I was running an international end of life care summer school at Lancaster University at the time. That evening, staff and students gathered in the home of a colleague: the summer school party had turned into a wake. I read out a draft of an obituary I had… Continue reading

Comparing Anticipatory/Advance Care Planning Documents in Scotland and Japan

Published on: Author: Marian Krawczyk 1 Comment

Dr. Marian Krawczyk and Dr. Haruka Hikasa Mitori Project The Mitori Project was a multidisciplinary project examining end of life issues in the UK and Japan, led by Professor David Clark. It brought together academics from both countries using perspectives of social science, humanities, and ethics to examine how care of people at the end… Continue reading

How Can Death be the Great Equalizer in the Face of Inequality?

Published on: Author: Amy Shea Leave a comment

Eight minutes and forty-six seconds. That’s how long an officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck resulting in his death from asphyxiation. In eulogizing Floyd, Reverend Al Sharpton said, “Since four hundred and one years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee… Continue reading

Global development of children’s palliative care: the picture in 2017

Published on: Author: davidclelland Leave a comment

In December we published the overall results from the third ‘world map’ of palliative care development, showing that only a small proportion of the global population, mostly in the global North, live in countries with the most advanced provision of palliative care. We can now present our assessment of global levels of children’s palliative care… Continue reading

Understanding bereavement support in response to Covid-19

Published on: Author: chaofang 2 Comments

A yellow heart has been widely shared across the UK during lockdown, giving many bereaved families a meaningful opportunity to visibly share their loss and grief. Originating from a single bereaved family, this simple and powerful movement has showcased one of many new forms of grieving developed during the time of Covid-19. In the face… Continue reading

Dying and death in “unprecedented” times: The role of learning

Published on: Author: Marian Krawczyk Leave a comment

The world stopped making sense when my sister died. She wasn’t supposed to die young, with a small child, most of her life still to be lived – it was an unprecedented event.  In order to try and find meaning to my inchoate grief, I began to explore others’ stories and experiences with dying and… Continue reading

In the time of COVID – ‘April is the cruellest month’

Published on: Author: David Clark Leave a comment

TS Eliot’s chilling start to The Waste Land has deep resonance in the time of COVID-19. We seem to be exactly in that instant when ‘the dead tree gives no shelter’, when ‘I was neither living nor dead’, and when ‘He who was living is now dead’[i]. The mere 30 days of April have felt… Continue reading

The Global Spread of Death Cafés

Published on: Author: Naomi Richards 1 Comment

Before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted conventional thinking around death and dying, Death Cafés around the world were encouraging people to reflect on their mortality. Death Cafés are informal social spaces where strangers meet to ‘have a conversation’ about death and dying. They can be organised by anyone, anywhere in the world. With death rates now… Continue reading