MID Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust is encouraging people across Essex to plan for the future by thinking about their end of life wishes in the lead-up to Dying Matters Awareness Week.

This year the national campaign, which runs from Monday May 8 until Sunday May 14, will ask people to think about three questions: 1. Planning – what can you do to get active in planning for death and dying?

2. Support – what can you do to help someone you’re close to or someone in the wider community in times of grief and bereavement?

3. Conversation – what can you do to talk more openly about dying and death?

To coincide with this, the Trust has been working in partnership with Action for Family Carers, Essex County Council, Farleigh Hospice and Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group to develop an online photo campaign as part of Die Well Essex that starts a conversation about why dying matters.

Using the online social media platform- Instagram, people are being encouraged to share their favourite images of people, places or things that celebrate life, as well as acknowledging the reality of death.

The aim of the social media campaign is also to help to signpost people to support and services available locally.

The online campaign will support the key theme of this year’s national Dying Matters awareness week – What Can You Do?

People can share images via their own Instagram account – all that is needed is a sentence on what the picture represents along with #DieWellEssex or tagging @DieWellEssex.

People can also join in with the conversation in the lead up to, and during Dying Matters Week, on Twitter at @DieWellEssex or by searching Die Well Essex on Facebook.

The Trust is also asking people to support the campaign by joining the Thunderclap using the following link http://midessexccg.nhs.uk/livewell/diewell/join-the-thunderclap.

To find out more about the online campaign visit http://www.dyingmatters.org/