91% of us think about our fleeting mortality regularly, with a third of us speculating on our own death at least once a week, according to the Co-op’s recent upbeat survey into post-life matters.
The survey focused on the various ways people deal with the death of a loved one and received over 30,000 respondents.
The study speculates that 18 million people find it increasingly difficult to consider and talk about their death. Of these, 13 million people understood that they needed to communicate about such matters, but the conversation would be held begrudgingly.
Our reluctance to discuss death highlights a shockingly poor ability to plan for our eventual ‘shuffling off this mortal coil’. Only 27% of respondents had made a Will, with a worrying 6% ensuring any Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) was put in place.
Even when it comes to grieving and becoming bereaved, people are reluctant to talk and acknowledge the change in their lives. 24% keep as busy as possible, 12% return to work too early and 16% do not share the loss with others to avoid talking about the issue. Collectively, this suggests that over half of those surveyed find it difficult to face bereavement.
Robert MacLachlan, Managing Director of Co-op Funeralcare and Life Planning, said: “We see increasingly that a failure to properly deal with death has a knock-on impact for the bereaved, affecting mental health and also triggering financial hardship. We’re committed to doing right by our clients and more needs to be done nationally to tackle this.
“Now that we have such a wealth of insight on what stops the nation engaging with death and bereavement, we can start to address these areas and work with others to drive genuine social change.”
Julia Samuel, author of the bestselling book Grief Works, commented: ”This Co-op survey being on such a large scale is both convincing and fascinating. It gives us concrete evidence of the extent that death is unvoiced in our society and shows that we need to find a way to bring those thoughts and fears out into the open.”
Carol McGiffin, Television Broadcaster, commented: ”Death, dying and bereavement are unavoidable experiences that impact all of us, so it’s incredibly eye-opening to see how many of us are still uncomfortable talking about it. Having experienced a life threatening illness myself, I now have a completely different perspective on mortality and have realised how important it is to come to terms with it.”
Whether it be through taboo issues, ideas too painful to consider or a reality too uncomfortable to face, the reluctance to plan for our death could leave our loved ones with a trail of trouble and turmoil. The survey indicates that it is time to withdraw our heads from the proverbial sand and confront the uncomfortable, in order to ensure the bereaved are able to grieve in peace.
Do you find that people are reluctant to consider their Will and their mortality? Will this continued disregard to acknowledge the future result in major complications if a person dies before putting any legal document in place? Should planning for our death be a legal requirement?
One Response
I would say planning for your death is almost a legal requirement. You can either do it yourself by writing a Will or leave it to the intestacy rules