A taboo-breaking Ballarat event hopes to open up death for discussion, as organisations report few people get their wish to die at home granted.
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Living Today Dying Tomorrow will take place at the Ballarat Cemetery's refurbished chapel on Thursday, including talks about how to explain loss to children and how to plan ahead.
A ticketed lunch event will include keynote speakers Dr Kerrie Noonan, who co-founded the Groundswell Project, and Dr David Brumley, the managing director of the Ballarat Hospice Care.
The Groundswell Project is trying to improve Australia's death literacy and shift how we respond to death.
Dr Noonan, a clinical psychologist in palliative care, said the organisation wanted to make sure "everyone knows what to do" when someone is dying or grieving.
"Seventy-five per cent of us say we want to die at home, and less than 20 per cent of us get to," she said.
"Because we don't do a lot of talking and thinking about dying, we don't know the range of options that we have, we don't know what's available to us in our communities. That includes palliative care and formal services, but we don't know about the other kinds of informal supports in our communities."
The event connects to the world-wide movement of Compassionate Communities. Dr Noonan said she hoped people will come to understand the important place rural and regional communities have in "addressing this bigger social need we have around dying and loss."
Ballarat General Cemeteries Trust CEO Annie de Jong said the events were driven by a question: "How do we tell people about end of life services, so they can plan and have that conversation with loved ones?"
"Death is a life event. It might make people very sad, and the person in question might not be there to share it, but it's still another life event," she said.
"When someone is coming to their end of their life, all anyone wants to do is do what their loved ones wants.
"So we encourage people to have a conversation with family and friends, so they know what they want."
A Death Cafe and Bar - which tried to foster conversations about death in a comfortable and relaxed environment - will take place between 3pm-4pm and 5pm-7pm on Thursday.
More information on the Living Today Dying Tomorrow Eventbrite website.
