Death literacy: Tensions between theory and practice

Death literacy is a burgeoning field in palliative care research and the social sciences, exploring people’s knowledge, skills, experiential learning and social action as these pertain to death and dying. Death literacy is not described or advocated in UK policy or guidelines explicitly, yet this essay shows that it is mentioned implicitly, and these implicit definitions and uses are explored. In this critical essay, the authors draw on a series of examples from UK-based policy and guidelines to describe the ways death literacy is implicitly articulated in the material. In doing so, the essay draws attention to the ways death literacy is understood in policy and guidelines, the ways death and talking about death are framed, and the ways that nuanced contextual accounts of death literacy are critical to developing this branch of study further. By looking at the ways death literacy is framed in policy through the lenses of time, taboo and how death is discussed (or not), this essay develops an account of the tensions and gaps between theory and practice. Recommendations to address these gaps include discussions centred on the timing of conversations about death and dying, and establishing a benchmark for what is discussed and constitutes ‘death literacy’ in public discourse. As such, the essay contributes to the growing body of literature on death literacy in the United Kingdom.