My life, my death

In September 2017 Healthwatch Cornwall began to evaluate the impact their End of Life Conference “A Good Death”, held in January 2016, had made on EOL care in Cornwall, just over 18 months after the event. With these objectives in mind, in May 2018 Healthwatch hosted a second EOL conference for professionals: My Life, My Death. The ethos of the day was aligned to their mission, vision and values.  The My Life, My Death conference was attended by nearly 100 delegates from 36 different organisations. The day was centred around individual stories and the importance of having conversations about death and dying. The research involved working with health and education research agency Alterline, and undertaking the survey to which 665 people responded.

Key findings

There was a call for a cultural shift to de-medicalise death within our society and enable better EOL planning: currently, very few people have an EOL care plan.

Families, friends and GPs were the main providers of support to those with a terminal diagnosis and as such require the right skills and resources to be well equipped to provide this.

eople wanted to die in their preferred setting, where delays to good care, equipment and access to services were minimised. Most people preferred to die at home, with care that provides comfort, is dignified and pain-free, at all times of day and night.

People wanted to receive a terminal diagnosis in the right place, at the right time, delivered by the right person, in the right way

There are examples of great EOL care and good practice across Cornwall, but there was a need to improve people's knowledge of end of life care.

There is a need to provide better training for all aspects of communication of EOL care, from delivering a terminal diagnosis through to bereavement support.