Student Laura Pusey says African and Caribbean communities are failed by how death is dealt with.
A UNIVERSITY of Huddersfield student is aiming to improve the circumstances that surround dying and bereavement for the African and Caribbean communities in the UK.
Laura Pusey, who has just completed her BSc(Hons) in Sociology and is about to embark on a PhD, wants to apply her research to change the model around dying, death and bereavement as a whole. She feels that the current system fails African and Caribbean communities, because a ‘one size fits all’ approach does not take enough account of cultural nor spiritual heritage and cannot provide comfort for either those in the last stages of life, nor their families.
Sociology student Laura Pusey will now embark on a PhD
For Laura, death is “fascinating” – far from the taboo subject that it is for many, and she says that being able to explore death through her degree was liberating. Parallel to completing her studies, also Laura trained as a non-medical death doula and a funeral celebrant, services she intends to offer to all under the banner of her intended social enterprise D.I.P.ism.
“A death doula is somebody professionally trained to assist the family as well as the person making their transition,” says Laura. “That can be from diagnosis through to the moment of transition, however, I also intend to extend support for bereaved family members.
“With my most recent client, it was about sitting with him and his wife and talking about their lives together, and his impending death. I was with them at their home when, under Covid-19, he made his transition. I then went on to conduct a personalised funeral for him and knew I had found my purpose.”
Culture, heritage and traditions
Laura wants to focus on bringing the circumstances around dying for African and Caribbean communities more into line with traditions that have faded away in the UK in recent years. Someone passing away in hospital, especially after a prolonged illness, aside from Covid-19, will only have a few members of their immediate family with them. But this is in sharp contrast to the tradition where people would die at home having been attended to by friends as well as family in their last days.
“When members of our community found out my father was gravely ill, 60 to 80 people turned up at the hospital, including people I hadn’t seen since I was a child!” says Laura. “Despite that, he died alone, in a room that was sterile. It was not a reflection of the man he was or the life he lived.” Parallel to her course, Laura also establishing a social enterprise, which she has named D.I.P.ism
Another issue is that the tradition of the deceased being taken home for friends and family to visit and pay their respects before the funeral has also disappeared. It reflected the fact that dying and bereavement in the Caribbean was, like many aspects of life, a fusion of British, Irish, African and Asian cultures.
Laura adds, “Dying at home is a desire for many African and Caribbean people that is often snatched away at the last minute, so we end up passing away in a lonely hospital setting.
“My gripe is that we can’t at least die in our own way. We have given our lives to the country, and at the end, surely, we should be able to do it in a way that suits us or that works with our cultural beliefs and identity systems. We don’t get that without a struggle, and it’s sad.”
Ethnicity on death certificates
Another matter that Laura wants to address urgently is changing the death certificate to include ethnicity, which is not recorded in England and Wales.
“The lack of ethnicity on the death certificate means we are made invisible. Post Covid-19, how will it be translated that we died at disproportionately higher rates? Where are the stats coming from to make positive changes? We need people in the future to look back and say, ‘here’s the proof that people of African and Caribbean communities did die disproportionately, and these are the changes we have since made’.”
Laura now hopes to conduct research on improving bereavement processes for African and Caribbean communities and is looking at how the UK funeral industry can also better reflect different heritages.
Laura can be found on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/d.i.p.ism/.
NB: As a self accredited Death Practitioner, I have since decided it is better to do the physical work rather than continue with my academic studies. There are somethings that just have to be done. Maybe I will write it later.