One area of Health Literacy to which most people don’t give a lot of thought (or try not to, anyway) is end of life planning. Believe it or not, we had a program at the Elkins Park Library a few weeks ago titled “How to Have a Fun Funeral.”
Some patrons were shocked by the title, but it definitely got people’s attention! We had a good turnout after all, and attendees really learned different ways to “give themselves a good send off.” Not only did the presenter give examples of interesting funerals she has heard of and attended, she gave tips for personalizing and saving money when planning your own funeral.
There are more options for caskets, cremation and burial than most people are aware. “Green” burials have risen in popularity, with a focus on returning the body to the earth. (Technically, there is no PA state law prohibiting being buried on your own property, although it probably wouldn’t do much for your resale property value).
We discussed organ donation and donating your body to medical research (one patron told us about her plans to have her skeleton put into the Mutter Museum). Of course,
these days many people are choosing cremation over burial. There are different options for that, too. You can have your ashes scattered on land or at sea, or have them made into a monument or a coral reef.
In the end, fun or not, planning your own funeral is a great gift for any loved ones you leave behind. It’s a topic that most people need to talk about but are afraid to. I love that our library became a place where people could have a frank discussion about such an important topic. It may have seemed like an odd choice for a library program, but libraries are places where people come to make informed choices for all stages of life, why not end of life, too?
For more ideas on how to promote Health Literacy in your library, visit thePA Forward Best Practices Database and be sure to add your programs to the database by completing the PA Forward Best Practices Short Form.
This is the last article written by the 2014 PALS group. Next week, you will meet the new cast of PALS journalists for the Compendium. On behalf of my fellow group members, Adam Balcziunas, Jill McConnell and Diane Schmidt, we would like to thank Kathy Silks, PA Forward Project Manager, Diana Megdad, Public Library Advisor for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Janis Stubbs, Assistant Director/District Consultant at Delaware County Library System for all of their guidance and support over the past year.