I am an Officer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hospice and End of Life Care, which brings together MPs and Peers on a cross party basis to campaign for high quality and accessible palliative and end of life care for everyone. Hospice U.K. is a national charity working for those experiencing dying, death and bereavement, and provides the secretariat for the APPG which is currently undertaking an important review into the lasting impact of Covid-19 on death, dying and bereavement.
Hospice care is important to so many people and we are very lucky to have St Michaels Hospice on our doorstep here in Hastings and Rye. Both my parents died of cancer and I will always be grateful for the amazing care that they received.
Hospice U.K. estimates that 9,000 people have been bereaved every day in the past 18 months, with many prevented from grieving in the company of family and friends or being able to participate in religious (or other mourning) observances that help us to process grief. Being bereaved can be a lonely time, and the isolation associated with Covid-19 restrictions has made it even more difficult. The death of a loved one is hard to deal with and our responses to losing a loved one can vary. Grief can be emotional, but it can also affect us physically, spiritually, cognitively, socially, and behaviourally.
Whereas grief is a natural response to losing someone close to you, and some support is available to help us cope with grief, death and dying is still very much a taboo subject in our society. This means that too many people are themselves ill-equipped and struggle to cope with the death of a loved one or talk to a friend who has suffered the loss of a loved one; it can be difficult to talk to friends and family about how we are feeling or find out how they are feeling themselves. Breaking down the barriers to conversations about grief is vital to improving the support for those who have been bereaved, including in workplace settings, which need to become more compassionate spaces for staff impacted by death and dying. I have been petitioning for palliative care leave – paid leave - to be given to employees for a fixed period of time to look after their loved ones in their time of greatest need. I am pleased that the APPG for Hospice and End of Life Care is going to take this up.
Next week, from 22-26 November, the Hospice U.K. Dying Matters campaign will be seeking to tackle these barriers by encouraging the public to share memories of people they want to remember. The aim of this campaign - #IRemember - is to start important conversations about grief and demonstrate how we can keep the memory of people we have lost alive by sharing their story.
I will be supporting the #IRemember campaign and its mission to encourage a more open culture, where we are comfortable talking about grief and bereavement. I will remember my parents through sharing memories of them on social media.
Our Hastings and Rye communities can take part in #IRemember by sharing stories of people they want to remember on social media too, tagging @DyingMatters and using the #IRemember hashtag between 22-26 November.