This week is Dying Matters Awareness Week (dyingmatters.org) which starts with a day encouraging us to talk about traumatic and sudden death, a topic which we're all hearing more about during this pandemic, and tragically which may have affected us directly through the loss of a family member, friend, or work colleague. This year, Dying Matters is focusing on how we respond when someone wants to discuss death, grief, their will, or funeral plans with us.
Dying Matters says: "It's too easy to dodge that conversation with a joke or a "maybe later". But we know it's hard for people to talk about death and the practical aspects of getting ready for it. So when someone wants to talk about death, we owe it to them to be the other half of that conversation. If they want to talk, we need to listen."
All our Chaplains and Street Angels are trained to listen if you want to talk about anything, even the most difficult topics. They won't judge you, interrupt you, rush you, nor try to tell you what to do, but they can signpost you to relevant specialist sources of support and advice if you need that.
And if you and your work team right here in Watford town centre would like some basic training in how to respond supportively to someone who's been through a traumatic experience, experiencing the death of someone they loved, then please contact us to arrange that training (which can be delivered online). Previous participants in our training course have told us:
"I found the whole course so informative and it was good to find out about all the help available for bereavement (the websites etc.). Also the different effects of a traumatic death and an unexpected death and how it can affect people differently"
"Being able to explore a very difficult topic in such a safe and sensitive way - I felt secure and in a safe pair of hands and this has empowered me to take what I have learned and use it"
"Even during the course I was talking to people on the phone in very sad and traumatic situations in their lives and I was able to see more clearly how to be a good listener especially as it's impossible to be there to hold them close"
"Thank you for the training which we thoroughly enjoyed if we can say that with such a delicate subject".