S1 Ep7: Talking to young people about death and dying

The Dying Matters Podcast

Most of us are more likely to only start talking about death and dying as we get older - as the prospect gets nearer, more familiar, maybe even more relatable. However, as we all know, death doesn't just come for us at the end of a long life. It happens to the young too.

Our guests this week passionately believe that it's really important to include the voices of young people in conversations about death and dying. Lucy Watts was told that her health and mobility problems were life-limiting when she was seventeen. Ever since then, she has become an advocate for young people who need palliative and end of life care, arguing that they have specific needs that cannot be met by children's or adult's services alone. We dig into what those needs are, as well as Lucy's own beliefs around death and dying, and why she challenges other people in her life to think and talk about it in the same way that she has had to.

We also hear from Debbie Young and Joanie Speers, who worked with Gentle Dusk in Islington to set up a death cafe just for young people, providing them with their own space to talk about death and dying.

Theme music is by Bernadette Ryan.

Find out more about Lucy Watts on her blog:

http://www.lucy-watts.co.uk/

Find out more about Gentle Dusk: http://www.gentledusk.org.uk/

Dying Matters online:

Twitter: @dyingmatters

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DyingMatters/

Instagram: @DyingMatters

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