A new campaign is encouraging Irish people to talk more openly about dying and grieving.
The 'Time to Talk: Tomorrow Starts Today' campaign from the Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) wants to normalise these difficult topics and acknowledge that they are part of the life.
The campaign aims to help people navigate conversations around death, advance care planning and grief.
Trinity College Dublin Psychiatry Professor Brendan Kelly told Newstalk Breakfast Irish people generally don't want to talk about such topics.
"We struggle to talk about these things ahead of time," he said.
"It's very interesting that funerals and wakes in Ireland are times of great coming together, times of great talk and chat and remembering.
"That's really healthy and that's really good – but we're not as good about talking about this ahead of time - and we're reluctant to bring it up with each other as well for fear of upsetting other people".
'Confusion or uncertainty'
Prof Kelly said the campaign should help to focus people and not leave families "in a state of confusion or uncertainty after your death".
"We worry a great deal about upsetting each other, about all kinds of things, and we worry far too much about that," he said.
"We can have very difficult conversations if we approach them well."
Prof Kelly said the IHF campaign includes a downloadable 'Think Ahead' pack which helps to answer some questions.
"This goes through very practical things and it makes it easy to talk," he said.
"For example, there are things like what kind of medical care you would like, but also what about your pets - what would you like to see happen to them?
"Do you have a pension? How many bank accounts do you have - very simple things like this.
"A document like this can just open the conversation a little bit more [and] make it less weighty by focus on details".
Structure
Prof Kelly said such documents can provide a structure to the conversation.
"It's good to discuss it mutually - so, for example, if you are in a relationship, it can be useful to say, 'Why don't we take a look at this in the event that one of us became ill'" he said.
"It can be helpful to do that together... and then having something to structure it out, like these documents from the Hospice Foundation, it really helps go through the topics".
Prof Kelly added that it can be easier to talk about death when people are in good health.
