Grief Australia workshop | Building Death Competency and Literacy in Helping Professionals

Death is the one certainty in life, yet many are fearful to talk about it or even acknowledge that it exists. Even people in the helping professions can feel overwhelmed and confronted when needing to talk about death.

• What makes us scared to even say the ‘d’ words, death, dying, deceased?
• Why do we have 247 euphemisms to describe when someone has died but only a handful for the word living?
• Death competency is about learning to be comfortable with death, being able to talk about death without fear, and with gentle confidence.
• This interactive workshop will provide you with the skills and knowledge to respond to compassionately with in community around death, dying, and bereavement.

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand what death competency and grief literacy mean in practice.
• Explore ways to communicate effectively and compassionately about grief.
• Identify how systems can become more grief-informed and death-aware.