St. Jerome's University, Lectures in Catholic Experience, and the Hospice of Waterloo Region, with community partners Research Institute for Aging/Conrad Grebel University College, are pleased to host "The Absent Friends" Film Series. The series pairs films with discussion, to challenge people to talk about the often taboo topics of death, dying, and grief.

The partnership between Hospice of Waterloo Region and St. Jerome's University developed further to research being completed by SJU assistant professor, Andrew Stumpf, who teaches a course on  "Ethics of End-of-Life Care" at the university. The series features four films - "Two Weeks", "Farewell",  "The Fault in our Stars", and "The Savages" - and hopes to inspire people to build a more compassionate community.

Films are being presented in St. Jerome's University's Academic Centre (January, February, and April) and in Conrad Grebel's Great Hall (March).  Displays, resources, and refreshments will be available prior to the start of each film. Each presentation will be followed by discussions that address issues of death, dying, and loss led by special guests.

On Friday, February 28th "Farewell" is the featured movie. Based on the director’s own life experiences, "Farewell" mixes comedy and drama to explore the realities of family dynamics, cultural differences and terminal illness. Discussion will be facilitated by the Rev. Dr. Florence Juma, Certified Spiritual Care Practictioner and Educator-Supervisor at the Grand River Hospital.

Participation is free, but registration in advance is requested to assist with planning. Please register at www.hospicewaterloo.ca.

Complete Our Death Literacy Questionnaire
A Message from Professor Andrew Stumpf

As part of my work with Hospice Waterloo Region on a research project to evaluate their community engagement methods, we are seeking volunteers from those attending the Absent Friends Film Series to participate in this study.

Participation in this study involves filling out an online “death literacy” questionnaire. Death literacy is defined as a “set of knowledge and skills that make it possible to gain access to, understand, and act upon end-of-life and death care options” (Noonan et al., 2016). We hope the film series will help attendees to improve their death literacy, and we have created a short questionnaire to assess their level of death literacy prior to attending.

If you have not yet attended any of the Hospice Waterloo Region "Absent Friends Film Series" events, please complete our Death Literacy Pre-event Questionnaire. If you choose to complete this questionnaire and with your approval, we will contact you again by email after the film series to complete a second short questionnaire. Your responses to these two questionnaires will help us to assess the impact of the film series on increasing death literacy.

Participation in this first questionnaire will take approximately 10 minutes of your time. The study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.

If you have any questions about this research, please contact me at adhstumpf@uwaterloo.ca.

Thank you for your support and participation in our research.
 

Professor Andrew Stumpf

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