LIFE-SUPPORT

Covid-19 has changed both how we live, and how we die. Not only has the pandemic impacted every aspect of our life - how we behave, how we work, and how we socialise, it has brought death and dying into our daily reality. Further, the isolation conditions that this disease imposes means that our traditional rituals around death and dying - physical closeness, time with those that are ill, face to face contact with friends and support networks - are no longer possible. This is having a huge impact on society, on our wellbeing and mental health, and our community support services.

With up to 66,314 additional deaths expected due to Covid19, we now need to face difficult conversations with children worried about parents and grandparents, with loved ones about their care, fears and choices. For many, these conversations will have to happen unexpectedly, from afar and without physical contact. How will we be supported to discuss the end of life when it matters most?

The Liminal Space uses art and design to create ground-breaking experiences that transform what people think, feel and do. We are a unique organisation that brings together the rigour of a think tank with the creativity of a cross-disciplinary design studio to translate some of the toughest issues facing our society into tangible objects, spaces and experiences that people can relate to and interact with.

Building on knowledge from The Departure Lounge, our highly successful public engagement project to support conversations on death and dying in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences, Wellcome Trust and the Health Foundation, we will create LIFE-SUPPORT - a digital, accessible and highly designed and researched experience that supports people in having conversations about death.

Working in collaboration with academics, sector experts and those with lived experience, we will bring this support to public audiences by translating it into an experience people can use to scaffold conversations, gain deeper understanding, interact with, and share - all rigorously researched and tested prior to launch.

LIFE-SUPPORT will not only guide users through a process of a conversation around death, but offer both practical support, information and meaningful personal connection along the way.

EXTENSION FOR IMPACT - SCOPE CHANGE REQUEST 23.10.20: As of October 2020, we know that Covid19 cases and deaths are rising across the country and many parts of the UK are facing stricter lockdown conditions again. We need this tool to reach even further. Extra funding will allow the Life Support tool to be tested thoroughly through user testing session to allow us to amend and refine the tool and the sensitive nature of the content beyond launch in November 2020. From these user testing sessions we will amend not only the design of the tool to ensure it appeals to a wide demographic of users, but the actual content itself; this unique user-centred tool sensitively shares real life stories to unify communities and tackle feelings of isolation across the UK in order to create a space that mentally and emotionally supports people, empowering them to have conversations about death and dying with loved ones. The extra scope will also enable us to reach more users and make a greater impact by doing dedicated social media campaigns and targeted comms. We will be leveraging existing partnerships as well as spending further dedicated time forming new partnerships as part of scaling the tool up.