Continuing Bonds: Exploring the meaning and legacy of death through past and contemporary practice.

This project will examine a dialogue about death and dying between the clinical and historical disciplines. The aim of the project is two-fold: to demonstrate tangibly how archaeology can inform our current attitudes to death and dying, and thereby help shape policy and practice; and to explore the value of collaboration between health care professionals and archaeologists. The diverse methods of dealing with death and the dead uncovered by archaeologists will bring a different perspective to our current attitudes and therefore contribute towards a necessary re-examination of today's taboo status of death as an inevitable human experience.

Death is rarely discussed in everyday life mostly for fear of the emotions it raises. This has considerable consequences for individuals and families in decision-making in illness and frailty of old age. The fundamental hypothesis underpinning this work is that through introducing the topic of death through archaeological examples, discussions of death can become more commonplace, more emotionally detached and hopefully more familiar. Through bringing this topic back into the conversational realm, many fears can be alleviated and practicalities and preferences can be discussed.

Through creating a compendium of insights into death through time, particularly the fundamental resonance of bereavement, loss and commemoration, the project will shape thinking on how contemporary practice and historical perspectives can be mutually informed. It offers a more enlightened approach to a fundamental and inevitable moment in our human lives.

The project will test out this approach with both lay audiences and with students and professionals in health, social and spiritual care, including nursing students, spiritual care practitioners, counsellors, and medical students. It will seek to use materials to prompt reflection and examination of participants' own familial and cultural approaches to death, commemoration and continuing bonds with those that have died. It will also draw on the past to explore the concept of ancestors, and how this relates to contemporary considerations of legacy, continuing bonds, and the prospect of ourselves as ancestors of future generations. This will be achieved through a series of thematic workshops with the stakeholder groups and an action research approach, with each workshop informing future workshops, as well as working towards an exhibition intended for the public. Stakeholder workshops will run in conjunction with two 'Dying Awareness Week' events on the theme of Continuing Bonds, which will include a public audience, and will be the primary dissemination event for exhibition materials.

Towards the close of the project, an exploratory workshop will be held with secondary teachers, to assess the viability of introducing material into schools as part of a 'Death Education', with this the focus of work beyond the current project.
The project will provide a foundation for further interdisciplinary approaches to fundamental issues of life and death, demonstrating how disciplines which are apparently diverse can aid, inform, and mutually benefit from each other.

This project builds on an existing programme of research undertaken by the PI and CoIs, which has developed networks between archaeology and healthcare, and explored the ideas raised here with stakeholders, including palliative nurses, spiritual care practitioners, and academics in health care, receiving overwhelming support for project development. A successful pilot workshop has also taken place, organised by CoI(1) during Dying Awareness Week (May 2014), where the PI delivered a keynote lecture. The networks and support for this research are in place and growing, creating an exciting and new interdisciplinary approach to attitudes to death, dying, legacy, and memory, and a tangible demonstration of the impact of humanities research.

Who will benefit from this research?

1) Public sector groups, including health-care professionals, spiritual care practitioners, counsellors and teachers
2) The Dying Matters coalition
3) Policy-making bodies around NHS and care settings
4) Wider public

How will they benefit from this research?

1) The project will inform the practice of nurses and other healthcare professionals in their work with dying patients and their families, improving confidence though an increased understanding of historical and cultural approaches to death, legacy and memory. Previous research has demonstrated the utility of narratives in enabling healthcare professionals to contextualise grief and loss. Our hypothesis is that an increased understanding of historical and cultural approaches to death, legacy and memory through facilitating exploration and discussion of dying, death, mortuary rituals will help practitioners examine their own attitudes and current practices. This in turn will lead to improved confidence, courage and thereby compassionate care of the dying and their families (DH 2012). A longer term impact will be on secondary teachers: during the final phase of the project, an exploratory meeting will assess the value of the project in working towards a 'Death Education'.

2) The Dying Matters Coalition, who strive to "help people talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement, and to make plans for the end of life" (Dying.Matters, 2013), will benefit through the provision of a new and innovative approach to dealing with death, desperately called for by researchers and policy-makers alike (Moon, 2010, DH, 2008, Cox et al., 2013). The establishment of dialogue and discussion about current issues surrounding death are often accompanied by strong emotions and polarised debate; research that informs this discussion using historical narratives based on archaeological findings will provide additional tools to contribute perspective to the discussion.

3) Changes in our stakeholder groups have the potential to inform future policy and planning in terms of treatment of our dying and dead, particularly around teaching medical and nursing professionals, as well as around hospital, hospice, care home and community settings. We anticipate that changes in attitudes will inform policy, planning and practice.

4) The project will contribute to an attitude change towards death and a breakdown of the current taboo of death as a subject, potentially allowing discussion of the topic in a more objective and less emotive way thus enabling people to think about their own death, legacy and bonds with their ancestors, both past and future, through participation in our Continuing Bonds workshops, accessing our project website, and through dissemination events, such as Death Café and Café Scientifique events. This has the potential for broader impact on issues of wellbeing, enabling both better deaths and better life (SGHD 2008). It will also provide new material for public talks and lectures, providing cultural enrichment for those interested in our human past.

References:
Cox, K., Bird, L., Arthur, A., Kennedy, S., Pollock, K., Kumar, A., Stanton, W. & Seymour, J. 2013. Public attitudes to death and dying in the UK: a review of published literature. BMJ Support Palliat Care, 3, 37-45.
DH 2008. End of life care strategy: promoting high quality care for all adults at the end of life. London: Department of Health.
Moon, P. J. 2010. Pedagogy of mortality: a concept in progress. Journal of Loss & Trauma, 15, 325-338.
SGHD: Scottish Government Health Directorates, 2008. Living and Dying Well: a national action plan for palliative and end of life care in Scotland. Edinburgh: SGHD.