If Dying Matters – It Matters At Work!

This week is Dying Matters Awareness Week and to support the national campaign we are encouraging our local communities and workplaces to talk about death, dying and grief.

The national campaign works to open up conversations around death and dying. This year, Dying Matters wants you to start that conversation at work.

Stigma around grieving and a lack of understanding about what it means to be ill ensures that many of us are struggling to cope when faced with life’s inevitable challenges.

The workplace is no exception. 57% of employees will have experienced a bereavement in the last five years and every day, more than 600 people quit work to look after older and disabled relatives.

Yet, fewer than one in five managers feel very confident supporting someone they manage with a bereavement.

Imogen Thomas, Senior Brand and Campaigns Manager at Hospice UK says: “If we struggle to talk about death and grief, how can we react with compassion when our colleagues and friends need support?

Dying Matters Awareness Week is a great way for communities across the UK to get this conversation started. If dying matters, then it matters at work too. By bringing people together, you can help us get the UK talking about death and grief in the workplace and in society more widely.”

Who Is Hospice UK & What Is Dying Matters?

Hospice UK  is the national charity for hospice and end of life care. They work to ensure everyone affected by death, dying and bereavement gets the care and support they need, when they need it.

Dying Matters is Hospice UK’s flagship campaign, that aims to create an open culture that talks about death and where people feel able to listen and support those who are planning for end of life, who are dying and who have been bereaved.