End-of-life care can be an eye-opening time for people and their families. But what do people think about during this time? Are they reflecting on their favourite memories, the bucket list items they never got to, or their regrets in relationships?
Dr Alex George, a former Love Island contestant who now uses his platform largely to discuss mental health, has shared a video on TikTok about palliative care. During the video, he speaks to palliative care expert, Dr Kathryn Mannix, who shares some surprisingly and deeply interesting findings from her time working in the unit. She reveals the top three things people reflect on during this time.
Dr Mannix said: “When a person’s at the end of their life, or they realise they’re dying, what is it that really matters to them? What is important to people in general?
“It’s interesting that we all think about the bucket list and the big trip that we want to do and all the rest of it, and yet, at the very end of people’s lives, their horizons come into what really matters are their relationships, the people who matter most to them.”
Dr Mannix mentioned the three things people tend to think about at this time: “They want to mend broken relationships. They want to be grateful for what people have meant to them through their lives. They want to tell people that they love them.
“And I think the great illustration of this was the phone calls from the twin towers that were left on answer machines. All of those messages were about love. I love you. Don’t forget. I love you, and we hear that over and over again in palliative care, thank you. I’m sorry. I forgive you, and I love you.”
Dr Mannix continued to discuss the difficulty we as humans face when discussing death and more importantly, love.
She added: “And we’re not great with our D words, are we? We’re not great at saying deaf and dying and dead, but we’re absolutely useless with the L word. We’re so tongue tied about it. “
At the end of the video, Dr Alex told viewers: “So call people and tell them that you love them. There’s your call of action right now. And we need to call someone in your life. I need to tell them that you love them.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
