Death is a universal human experience. While it’s a topic many don’t wish to address, because it’s something that happens to everyone, it’s often helpful to confront death instead of ignoring it. The internet has made doing so easier than ever.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- Websites About Death and Accepting Death
- Websites About Dealing With a Loved One’s Death
- Websites About End of Life and End-of-Life Care
Maybe you want to learn more about death in order to begin accepting the fact that you will die with less anxiety than you currently have. Perhaps a loved one has recently passed, and you need help coping with your grief. Maybe a loved one will pass on soon, and you want to explore end-of-life care options.
In any of these scenarios, there are many websites you’ll likely find useful. This overview will cover some of the more noteworthy ones.
Websites About Death and Accepting Death
Some people find that the best way to cope with the inevitability of their own death is to read about death acceptance online. If you’re such a person, consider visiting the following websites:
1. The Order of the Good Death
The Order of the Good Death’s members range from funeral industry professionals to artists. All members share a common goal: promoting death positivity.
The Order of the Good Death’s origins date back to 2010. As part of her work duties, recent mortuary school graduate Caitlin Doughty was driving a van carrying 11 corpses. This experience of transporting multiple dead bodies resulted in an epiphany. Doughty realized it would be much healthier for everyone if we lived in a society that accepted death instead of shying away from it.
This realization inspired Doughty to start the Order of the Good Death in January 2011. The group now spreads its message in a variety of ways.
These include providing education about alternative types of funerals, organizing death salons (in which people gather to discuss death openly), and hosting podcasts about death. The group’s website serves as a general resource for those who wish to learn more about the movement and how they can participate in it.
2. TED
Do you prefer to watch videos or listen to podcasts about topics that interest you instead of reading articles? If so, check out TED’s section on TED talks about death.
The specific topics these talks cover are wide-ranging. Some address how one can find meaning in life after a painful loss. Others discuss how people have the right to die as they choose. Others cover the various ways cultures throughout the world and history have handled death.
Those are merely a few examples. If you have any interest in death at all, TED Talks on the subject will provide you with hours of enlightening (and potentially comforting) content.
3. Death positive and death positivity groups
This entry doesn’t cover one particular website about death. It deserves to be on this list because social media groups can be very helpful to those wishing to develop a healthier relationship with this subject.
Many social platforms, such as Facebook and Reddit, have groups in which members discuss death and death positivity. Search for such groups on your favorite social media platforms to find ones you may wish to participate in.
While reading about death positivity through such sites as the Order of the Good Death is certainly valuable in many ways, you may also want the opportunity to engage in conversation with others who share your questions, concerns, and interests. Death positivity social media groups provide this opportunity.
Websites About Dealing With a Loved One’s Death
Coping with a loved one’s passing is almost always a challenge. However, grief support websites can make it somewhat easier. Consider the following examples:
4. Shelby Forsythia
Shelby Forsythia deeply understands the pain one can experience in the aftermath of a loved one’s passing. She was a young college student when her mother passed away in 2013.
Forsythia decided to use this experience as a means of helping others. She became a self-described “student of grief” and now works with others to help them cope with painful losses.
Those who wish to work with Forsythia can learn more about doing so via her website. She also writes one of the most popular grief support blogs on the internet and hosts a podcast, as well. Those who don’t plan on working directly with Forsythia may nevertheless find useful advice through these resources.
5. What’s Your Grief
Eleanor Haley, M.S., and Litsa Williams, MA, LCSW-C are two grief support specialists who created this website to serve as a comprehensive resource for those struggling with grief. It features articles, online courses, a podcast, a space where people can share their stories about grief, and even an online shop where visitors can purchase books and other grief-related items. The main goal of the website is to ensure that people coping with difficult losses know they do not have to do so alone.
6. Mindfulness & Grief Institute
Mindfulness is a practice that often (but not always) includes or overlaps with meditation. It involves accepting reality as it is instead of trying to change or fight back against challenging experiences.
Research has shown that mindfulness can be very effective as a means of managing depression, anxiety, physical pain, and more. It’s also becoming apparent that mindfulness may be useful as a way to cope with grief.
If this practice interests you, head to the Mindfulness & Grief Institute’s website for more information. Here, you’ll find info about meditation for grief, how to schedule grief support sessions, and what books you should read to help you during a difficult time. Like many websites about death, this site also offers a podcast.
7. Buddy’s Place
Buddy’s Place is a service that Pillars Community Health offers. It provides free programs designed specifically to help children manage grief.
This is one of the many reasons it earns a spot on this list. Many grief support websites cater mainly to adults. However, it’s important to remember that children can also grieve, and that they may even experience grief more profoundly than most. It’s crucial that they have access to the assistance they need when coping with feelings no child can easily prepare for.
8. The American Psychological Association
The APA’s web presence isn’t exclusively a website about death. Its content covers a range of mental health topics.
However, the website does feature a large selection of essays and guides on grief. You can find them by Googling “grief site:apa.org”.
The content on this site may be particularly helpful because its authors tend to be qualified mental health professionals. Thus, the advice they give reflects a genuine understanding of how grief functions and how people can learn to overcome it in healthy ways.
This highlights an important point. The authors of many websites about death and grief are often people who’ve lost loved ones and have turned to the internet to share their stories and connect with others. This is certainly an admirable way of taking a negative experience and using it for good.
That said, some of these individuals are not trained professionals. While their advice may be helpful, if you’re struggling with debilitating grief, consider reaching out to a mental health expert along with reading websites about death. You may require some counseling to truly overcome your pain.
Websites About End of Life and End-of-Life Care
It’s impossible to prevent death forever. Eventually, we all pass away. That said, it’s often possible to help someone pass with dignity and comfort through proper end-of-life care. Essential websites on this topic include:
9. National Institute on Aging
The end-of-life care section of the National Institute on Aging’s website is so comprehensive that it could be an entire site on its own. Here, you can learn about what end-of-life care may involve, how to find professionals to assist you when an aging loved one needs end-of-life care, how to properly coordinate with doctors when a loved one is preparing to die, and more. It’s a great resource to consult if you have questions about end-of-life care but don’t know where to start.
10. Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic is another institution whose website has an impressively thorough section on end-of-life care. Along with providing information to those whose loved ones are dying, it also offers resources to medical professionals, as well as information about end-of-life care research.
In many ways, this resource is similar to the National Institute on Aging website’s end-of-life care section. However, the Mayo Clinic’s is more general and can thus apply to a broader range of situations and individuals. Because it doesn’t focus solely on end-of-life care for the elderly, it can be a valuable guide for anyone whose loved one is likely going to die in the near future, regardless of their age.
11. Cancer.org
As you likely guessed, this website’s end-of-life care pages and content primarily offer education and assistance to cancer patients and their loved ones. However, it also includes general information for anyone who wishes to learn more about this topic.
Websites About Death: Exploring a Common Human Experience Online
Websites about death can serve many purposes, from helping us cope with death anxiety to providing us with information about how we can help loved ones who are close to death. The websites here are just some of the most useful and popular on the Internet.