Particularly in the Western world, the medicalization of death and dying has resulted in a loss of individual, family and community-based knowledge and skills when confronted with and living through these inevitable parts of life. Over the past few decades there has been a world-wide grassroots movement – often referred to as the “death awareness” or “death positive” movement – striving to reclaim and humanize these stages of the human experience. One component of this movement is death cafes.
Confucius is credited with saying that each of has two lives - the second one beginning when we truly understand that we only have one. The primary purpose of death cafes is consciousness-raising about how temporary each of our lives is. Death cafes can help to “dismantle the silence that reigns over the topic of death” (Fong, 2019). Typically, death cafes are ‘pop up events” held in respectful and confidential spaces. There is no goal of directing or leading people to any conclusions or courses of action. Cake must be served. (Miles & Corr, 2017).
In this workshop participants will:
- Become familiar with terms like death literacy and death competency.
- Engage in a facilitated dialogue about death, dying, and bereavement
- Explore personal and systemic barriers to discussing end-of-life issues
