Dying to Know Day is coming up on 8 August 2026, to encourage more open conversations about death, dying and grief.
For those of us working in primary care, it’s a good reminder that conversations about end of life don’t need to wait until someone is approaching their final days.
GPs, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals all have opportunities to recognise when someone living with frailty, dementia, chronic disease or a life-limiting illness might benefit from starting these conversations earlier.
This Dying to Know Day, have a think about the opportunities already sitting in front of you. Could you:
- ask someone what matters to them if their health changes?
- start or revisit an Advance Care Planning conversation?
- check whether an existing Advance Care Directive is current, accessible and known to the people involved in their care?
- ask the carer sitting beside them: “How are you going with all of this?”
- share a resource they can take home and use to continue the conversation with their family?
It doesn’t need to be one big conversation, and you don’t need to have all the answers. Starting earlier gives people and their families time to think, talk and plan before decisions need to be made.
At Healthy North Coast, a big focus of our palliative and end-of-life care work is supporting these earlier conversations and planning ahead, so people have greater choice about their care as their needs change.
Dying to Know Day is a great opportunity to bring some of those conversations into everyday practice.
Resources available
Some practical resources to use with patients and families:
- Healthy North Coast – Palliative Care on the North Coast booklet
- Healthy North Coast – Palliative Care on the North Coast factsheet
- Palliative Care Australia – Discussion Starters
- NSW Health – Making an Advance Care Directive
