“Death and mourning are not neutral processes: either they humanise us and we experience them in a salutary way, or they make us ill”. That’s one of the conclusions that came out of the 8th national days of health held in recent days at Tres Cantos, Madrid. “Humanising death means giving dignity to so important a moment of life; it means furnishing an emotional and spiritual support for integral, holistic assistance”. The point is made by José Carlos Bermejo, Camillian religious and director of the “Centro de Humanización de la Salud di Madrid”, which has organized the national days of health, dedicated this year to the humanization of death and the process of mourning. In the final communiqué it is emphasized that “death and mourning are experiences that are still regarded as taboo”. Father Bermejo stresses the importance of learning to experience death and mourning in the right way: “Humanising death he says means giving dignity to so important a moment of life, by promoting as far as possible the responsibility of patients and their families. The philosophy of palliative treatment represents the privileged means of promoting a real and practical commitment to the humanization of dying”. But will mourning remain a taboo? “Yes replies Father Bermejo -. The question of mourning, which is a taboo almost greater than death itself, needs to be treated in a specific way. Deepening the experience of mourning and the ways in which it is expressed are ways of humanising the assistance of those who have suffered a loss”.
