In the past, most people encountered death at a relatively young age. Dying relatives were cared for at home, and mortality rates were higher. Today, there is much less familiarity with death, which increasingly takes place in hospitals, hospices and nursing homes.

This wide-ranging and enlightening book offers an exploration of death and dying as human conditions that impact on the individual, their significant others and those involved with their care and well-being. It is aimed at medical and healthcare staff, social workers and counsellors, as well as social sciences and health psychology students, professional health and social care educationalists, and anyone with an interest in this topic.

Drawing on aspects of social anthropology, history, and the social and behavioural sciences, the book examines the customs, attitudes and beliefs surrounding death and dying. Emphasis is placed on the unique experience of death for each individual, and the book highlights the challenges faced by those who work with people who are dying or those who have experienced loss through death.

In addition, each chapter ends with some reflective questions that allow the reader to consider certain issues at a more personal level.

Contents include:

• The loneliness of dying
• Developments in end-of-life care
• Death, dying and the dead body
• Death and the challenge of ageing
• A dying language
• Making a case for death education
• Death, social change and lifestyle in the UK
• The End