Say Something Dundee (SSD) was founded upon the basis of relationship. In 2020, a steering group was formed comprising representatives of Dundee University, Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action, Just Bee Productions, Marie Curie and the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care with Funeral Link acting as the administrative centre. The partnership was aided by a statement of understanding.
SSD wants to create compassionate communities through conversations about death, dying, loss and care. Death has been described by Julia Samuel, the bestselling author of ‘Grief Works’, as the last great taboo. By opening up safe spaces for conversations around death, we hope to help enable people to navigate through grief for those who have lost loved ones and help those nearing the end of life to adequately plan ahead.
There were several objectives and aims underpinning SSD, which were governed by the Funeral Link trustees but run operationally in partnership with the SSD steering group. I have recorded our performance on each of these objectives in the next box, describing the actions.
The aims were as follows:
• To recruit a project worker on part-time hours within a fixed-term contract of a year. This person would develop and run around 10 community workshops on what conversations to have when death occurs and how to support people who are grieving.
• To develop and trial an additional workshop about planning ahead towards the end of life, which engages the development of wills and power of attorney, as well as helping people plan funerals and the potential of living eulogies. • To work in partnership with Funeral Link support workers to ensure a regular presence at bereavement cafes and community projects across Dundee, enhancing visibility and upscaling accessibility to the public.
• To embed and create a process of consistent monitoring and evaluation throughout the tenure of the project to assess its suitability or any anticipated need for change. All evaluation would endeavor to engage with people who used the workshops or training to explore their experiences.
• To explore new and innovative approaches, as part of the innovation strand funded by NHS Tayside Charitable Foundation (NHSTCF), to approach issues of death, dying, loss and care, which could be developed into the ongoing work of SSD.
There were several objectives and aims underpinning SSD, which were governed by the Funeral Link trustees but run operationally in partnership with the steering group. In line with those articulated above, here we delve into what our evaluation told us about our performance into each area.
• We recruited a part-time SSD worker – Vanessa Kelly – on a fixed-term contract until January 2024. By then, she had created and delivered 23 workshops entitled ‘What to Say?’ and ‘How Best to Support’ in community centres across Dundee, including in Fintry, Hilltown and Mid-Craigie.
• We delivered a reasonably well-attended ‘Planning Ahead’ event, which was delivered at an in person meeting co-facilitated with a local solicitor, who talked to people about Power of Attorney and Wills. Our evaluation showed there is a strong appetite for more of this kind of planning work.
• We, in tandem with a Funeral Link employee, ensured weekly attendance through out 2023 and 2024 at the ‘Life After Loss’ café, into which we introduced suitable grieving clients, as well as meeting others in community cafes to ensure visibility, where we regularly interacted with people.
• We introduced evaluation early on, which was completed by every attendee at public workshops. Feedback was extremely positive and proved a useful way to identify scope for innovation. Vanessa followed up every person who engaged to assess the viability of further development.
• We learned, as a result of evaluation, that there was an appetite for more support at the end of life. We identified a course called EASE. Vanessa recruited people and ran her first course in September 2023. She had run six online events by January 2024 and feedback was positive.
We had identified aspired outcomes for SSD, working these back into objectives, which were outlined above and reflected upon in the following section. Here, we take some time to analyse the outcomes of these objectives, with direct reference to our evaluation.
• We could find no equivalent service anywhere in Scotland providing what Funeral Link does in terms of funeral planning after a loss nor what SSD do in terms of supporting people with planning ahead prior to death. In this regard, we believe both services to be both unique and innovative.
• We found outcomes in direct relation to planning ahead to be highly effective in terms of reducing anxiety, stress and worry towards the end of life. Research was conducted by Sunlife during the tenure of this project which revealed only one in five talk to loved ones about end of life plans.
• We discovered that adding an online element to workshops in relation to EASE was a welcome innovation for attendees, which were run alongside the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and all of which were fully subscribed, highlighting the extent of interest.
• One outcome we have yet to turn into a reality and which we hope to in the second year of this project is developing a fully-fledged ‘Planning Ahead’ programme working with people in person around the development of a funeral plan as well as developing a living eulogy, if so desired.
• One outcome we have also yet to turn into a reality is to secure funding to open a community facility where we can deliver a number of these outcomes as well as delivering in house training and peer-to-peer support for bereaved individuals.
