Who We Are

A group of volunteers who believe that we need to normalise conversations about ageing and dying in our community, to ensure that quality of life extends to our end of life care in Bermuda.

Our Mission

Final Steps encourages people to make meaningful end of life choices now by educating the community to choose, communicate, and document what they want.

What We Do

We work towards our mission by hosting events and education campaigns, distributing literature and collaborating with other organisations. Much of the literature we distribute comes from The Conversation Project, a non-profit organisation that is dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end of life care.

Why Talking Matters

Most of us think about how we want to live the last phases of our lives, but only a small percentage of people actually talk about their thoughts and choices with the people they trust. It is much better to talk about your end of life choices around the kitchen table, ideally while you are still fit and healthy, than to burden your loved ones with guessing what you would want during a medical crisis. Talking about your end of life choices is a priceless gift of love and peace of mind to the people who matter most to you.

The Costs of Silence

Silence causes so much preventable harm - people may endure medical treatments that they do not want, families get torn apart by disagreements and finances get depleted. The emotional suffering and trauma can last for years when the people you love are burdened with having to make choices for you with no knowledge of what you would have chosen for yourself. The costs of silence are huge. A heart-to-heart conversation is free.

To get started, fill in the blanks in the following sentences:

What matters most to me at the end of life is ___________________________________. The place where I choose to die is _______________________________. The level of involvement with my medical care that I want is_______________________. The role that I want my loved ones to play in my end of life care is___________________. I really need to get _________________________ organised before I die. The person I would want to speak for me regarding my medical care is ________________. If I were bedfast, my life would still have meaning if ______________________________.

The three most important things that I would want my friends, family and/or doctors to understand about my end of life care are:

1.

2.

3.

Do the people you trust the most have ANY idea of your answers to the above questions?   Think of these conversations as “emergency preparedness.”

Here are some opening lines that really work:

“I need your help with something.”

“ I was thinking about what happened to _______________ and it made me realise _________.”

“Even though I’m okay right now, I’m worried that _______________ and I want us to be prepared.”

“I’ve been thinking about the future and made some decisions. Will you listen to what I’ve decided?”

Get in Touch

Please email finalstepsbda@gmail.com for all types of resources to assist you in these meaningful conversations, including apps, games, websites, video clips, Ted Talks and more.

Other resources include step-by-step instruction booklets available online at theconversationproject.org/starter-kits/ as well as gowish.org, a free online card game to help you sort out your priorities.