Abstract

Life story work with people approaching end of life offers more than an opportunity to record a person’s history: it offers time to reflect, make sense, and reframe. Supported by a life story volunteer, loss and change are acknowledged and often remain central to their narrative. Yet the focus is on people’s lives, who they are, and what they have achieved. People articulate what is most important to them; their life is celebrated. It is a reparative process: people create and share their legacy looking to the past, the present and the future. The project has created a lasting, audible and visual archive of the patient’s life providing thoughts and memories for families to share. This presentation will draw on the literature and evidence base of narrative medicine. It describes the hospice Life Story pilot, people’s experience, and what we have learned from participants and our evaluation. We will illustrate this with vignettes, and how the project is being rolled out in the county. We will conclude with methodological and practice development opportunities, and key research questions.