Death Cafe, Brisbane, Queensland
A write up of Death Cafe, Brisbane, Queensland
By Beth OBrien
It was a pleasure to meet with a great group of people so close to Christmas to reflect on the topic of death leading up to this celebration time.
There were some professional people from the palliative care teams of Brisbane and we discussed the lack of available hospice or palliative care in our city. It was interesting to hear how many people died in emergency wards or regular wards, when they could have been cared for in the community if those resources were available.
As usual the topics were amazing and our conversation travelled on some many interesting paths. Some of the discussion topics were as follows: What to say if someone has lost a special person – is “I’m sorry for your loss”, losing its empathetic feel; end of life care, transplants, helping the community to understand death; forgiveness; letters at the graveside; facebook, keeping life sustained; writing personal histories; www.heavenaddress.com and other memorial sites; the ageing population in Australia into the future.
Never stuck for a topic to chat about! We were grateful to move to our new venue as it was so much quieter.
Looking forward to seeing 2014 Death Café timetable evolving.