Raising Awareness for the Topics of Death and Dying...Want to Join Me?
So to compliment my role as a case manager and group facilitator with older adults, I have a mission and purpose in the areas of death and dying.
Not a topic most want to think about or even contemplate, but in order to be born, we will die one day.
For many death and dying seems years away and for some they do not fear death and it could come tomorrow.
An idea I came up with is to raise awareness for the topics of death, dying, and end of life and a way to combine all my interests is to create a race that combines walkers, runners/joggers, and cyclists. I am a cyclist and once April is here, cycle right through October…I just bought a new bike as I realized the importance of getting a good bike that fits my size and style along with being a light frame. I have a shoulder injury from almost 3 years ago that has not fully healed and a lightweight bike is a necessity as I have 15 stairs to lug it up and down each time I head out to cycle. This is bike 4 and I plan to keep it for many years.....
Thoughts? Participants would pay a fee or raise money to be used specifically for the goal of raising awareness about death and dying.
What does that mean? Resource information, training materials, books, checklists and the sharing of ideas along with education on the topic for professionals, students, older adults, families, caregivers, etc.
Julie and I just published a book on this very topic and we know there are many out there like us who support this topic.
‘Journey’s End” Death, Dying and the End of Life“ a book that has many perspectives in it from both lay people and professionals.
We attempt to describe real life issues and circumstances, and we discuss ways to proactively deal with them. Useful training, resource, and reference material are also included. Death, dying, and end of life are topics many prefer to avoid. This book suggests that we benefit from having frank discussions, living life to the fullest, and planning for our own journey’s end, whenever that may be. Everyone who is born eventually will die, whether or not we want to embrace that fact.
Though few of us know when we will die, we and our family or friends can be well prepared. We can have discussions and create written directives for what we want if we are unable to verbally state them ourselves. Do we want life support? Do we want interventions that may or may not have any benefit to our quality of life if we are in the hospital or in an accident? Do we want to be involved in planning our funeral, memorial, or celebration of life?
The submissions within are from professionals in the fields of death and bereavement support, physicians, nurses, social workers, plus and from laypeople, all of whom share stories of dying family members, friends, clients, and patients. Julie and I, the coauthors of this book, also share stories from our personal and professional experiences.
‘Journey’s End’ is a broadly comprehensive book about death, dying, and the end of life.
If interested in participating or you have ideas about how to organize such an event, please contact me: [email protected]
Note I live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada!
I am thinking next late summer 2018 to give time for participants to train, but the goal is not a race and winning (can you tell I am a social worker), but to raise awareness.
Julie and I are willing to come and speak to various groups, provide trainings to professionals, students, lay-people and raffle off a few books and in exchange give a donation back to a community or group if the venue can be provided to us and we can receive some assistance with marketing.
Buy This Book
Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
Price: $23.99
Dust Jacket Hardcover(B/W)
Price: $34.99
*First published at: https://northernmsw.com/2017/08/01/raising-awareness-for-the-topics-of-death-dying-and-end-of-life/