Jessica Blake, Anda Bayliss, Bethan Callow, Grace Futter, Navaneeth Harikrishnan and Guy Peryer
Experiencing bereavement in childhood can cause profound changes to developmental trajectories. This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a public health…
Abstract
Purpose
Experiencing bereavement in childhood can cause profound changes to developmental trajectories. This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a public health intervention in schools to encourage pupils aged 12-15 years to independently explore ideas of death, dying, loss and end of life care in a structured and creative format.
Design/methodology/approach
A co-produced storytelling intervention was implemented in an independent school in Norwich, UK. Pupils wrote up to 1,000 words in response to the title, “I Wish We’d Spoken Earlier”. Their participation was voluntary and extra-curricular. Stakeholder feedback was used in addition to the submissions as a measure of acceptability, appropriateness, adoption and feasibility.
Findings
In total, 24 entries were submitted. Pupils demonstrated their ability to engage thoughtfully and creatively with the subject matter. Feasibility for the storytelling intervention was demonstrated. Importantly, the intervention also prompted family conversations around preferences and wishes for end of life care.
Research limitations/implications
To determine whether the intervention has psychological and social benefits will require further study.
Practical implications
Educational settings can be considered as anchor institutions to support a public health approach to end of life care.
Originality/value
The positive response from all stakeholders in delivering and supporting the intervention indicates that schools are a community asset that could be further empowered to support children and families affected by death, dying and loss.
Details
Keywords
IT WOULD NOT BE beyond the powers of exaggeration to claim that James Joyce is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. But it would be doubly difficult—difficult…
Abstract
IT WOULD NOT BE beyond the powers of exaggeration to claim that James Joyce is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. But it would be doubly difficult—difficult, even, for a star‐spangled Dubliner whose lips had been royally touched—to substantiate such a claim within the limits of a single sentence. It is true Joyce wrote a great number of pages, but he did not write a great number of books. He was a great humorist in the true Irish tradition: a savage satirist in the manner of Swift (though subtler in his technique) and a natural parodist and punster. He could perform miracles with words, and just as Wilde was a master of the epigram, so Joyce achieved endless subtleties and successes with the pun.