Is a death café useful? Age Scotland members try one and give their views
Channel: UofG End of Life Studies
Date: 2016-11-09

Anthropologist Dr Naomi Richards of the University of Glasgow invites Age Scotland members to attend a death café during one of the organisation's regular meetings.

Read about the event on the End of Life Studies blog http://endoflifestudies.academicblogs.co.uk/university-of-glasgow-runs-a-death-cafe-with-age-scotland/

Naomi explains that a death café is an event where attendees are invited to talk about death, dying, grief, bereavement and any related subjects. According to the Death Café website, “At a Death Cafe people gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death. Our objective is 'to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.”

Before the death café Naomi gave a short talk explaining what a death café is and introducing her academic research into the subject. You can also watch footage of the full lecture. 

After the death café, members of the audience were invited to give feedback on their experience, some of which you can hear about in this video.

In her research, Naomi is asking questions about history of the death café, its increase in popularity, and the social contexts surrounding it, and whether or not it is a useful ‘cultural intervention’.

Find out more about Naomi’s research www.glasgow.ac.uk/deathcafe

Based on the Crichton Campus in Dumfries, the University of Glasgow End of Life Studies Group is doing research into palliative care and end of life issues in Scotland and around the world. 
 
The group’s main research project, Global Interventions at the End of Life, is funded by the Wellcome Trust. This four-year project aims to examine end of life interventions around the world: their history, form and function; their translation between contexts and between countries; their successes and failings; and the lessons which can or should be learned.
 
This talk took place during an event organised by Age Scotland for its members from the Dumfries and Galloway region in October 2016.

Find out more about Naomi http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/interdis...
Naomi is a member of the Glasgow End of Life Studies Group www.glasgow.ac.uk/endoflifestudies 
Age Scotland http://www.ageuk.org.uk/scotland/