Helping Children Smile Again with Amanda Seyderhelm

#15 How do we talk about death and dying with Palliative Care Consultant, Dr Kathryn Mannix

AMANDA SEYDERHELM

The pandemic has raised the bar around our fear of death and dying, and how we approach death and dying is as important as how we are birthed. Kathryn Mannix talks about why the contemplation of one's own death is a complex affair, and how when people are asked about their mortality, they are able and willing to answer, and when they share that burden they often discover, from within themselves, new insights and ideas that help them to cope.

She shares some of those insights from her book, With the End in Mind. We hear about Vronnie's story, and how she faced dying, and leaving her daughter alone, and how she prepared for that. When I read Vronnie's story the first time, it made me reflect deeply on my own Mother's death, and has stayed with me. It will stay with you too.

While facing death can make us fearful, learning how to prepare for it, and hold 'the end in mind', can also take away some of the fear.

This is a special episode with a master storyteller.

Dr Mannix has spent her medical career working with people who have incurable, advanced illnesses. Starting in cancer care and changing career to become a pioneer of the new discipline of palliative medicine, she has worked as a palliative care consultant in teams in hospices, hospitals and in patients’ own homes, optimising quality of life even as death is approaching. She is passionate about public education, and having qualified as a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist in 1993, she started the UK’s (possibly the world’s) first CBT clinic exclusively for palliative care patients, and devised ‘CBT First Aid’ training to enable palliative care colleagues to add new skills to their repertoire for helping patients.

www.withtheendinmind.co.uk
Twitter @drkathrynmannix

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If you are supporting a bereaved child, or know someone who is, you can purchase my book Helping Children Cope with Loss and Change. 

www.amandaseyderhelm.com

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