Being in a good place to die?

In the month of May, a whole week (11–17 May) is dedicated by the Dying Matters Alliance to remind people of this initiative and encourage people to talk openly about death and dying, as a way of reducing any remaining death taboos (Dying Matters, 2021). The Dying Matters week develops themes for discussion every year, and this year's theme is ‘being in a good place to die’. My first reaction when I saw the theme was to wonder, what exactly this means; hence, this commentary tries to unpack the thinking behind it. According to the Dying Matters Alliance (2021), 28% people who had indicated their home to be their preferred place of dying did, in fact, die at home in 2020. We could conclude that these people were in the right place to die, although we lack evidence of the quality of care and death when compared with other places, such as hospitals and hospices. However, when we realise that the COVID-19 pandemic might have accelerated the trend of dying at home, then we start to question whether home was indeed a good place for them to die. For example, people who may have preferred to die in hospital might have been reluctant to be admitted when the pandemic was at its deadliest for fear of being infected and, thereby, die a COVID-related death.