Death and dying is a taboo subject in many countries around the world, and hospices have a negative perception in most societies. fuelfor gave a rich insight into their project journey, sharing stories from initial insights research with three local hospices and a funeral home in Singapore. This work helped to rethink the current experience of end-of-life care for patients, families and professional care teams and propose a future vision for inpatient hospices.
To tackle such a delicate but universal topic, fuelfor were particularly sensitive in their approach, developing special methods and techniques to conduct design research and work with terminally ill patients and their families. The project also drew on the inspiring experience of learning from care teams and capturing the life that exists around death.
Their talk captures the story of ‘The Future Hospice’ project which has helped re-think the end of life care experiences. Layered with deep insights and emotions around death, dying & life, the talk expressed how fuelfor captured the joys and the dark moments that exist in hospices. These included stories of how they used translators to overcome cultural barriers or that they had to recruit patients very late in order to be sure who might survive and to speak to the team.
The Future Hospice project pushed both the organisation and the research team to rethink the end of life care experience and address the taboos in society about death and dying, it forcing them to stretch and challenge design research methods and tools for social change and innovation.
You can read more about the project here: http://www.fuelfor.net/fuelfor/Hospitable_Hospice/