Residents at a care home in Lambeth and Southwark made a special performance as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week.

Guy’s and St Thomas’s charity, End of Life Care Programme has been working with arts group Rosetta Life, using creative arts and drama to help people in Lambeth talk about death and dying.

Care home residents were filmed during a performance called Our Hearts in the Balance against a backdrop of the Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum.

Susanna Shouls, the head of the programme, said: "The performance touched me. Hearing the performers’ life stories, their ability and confidence to talk about their experiences of death and what they wanted made me think, What can I do? How should I plan for my death? How can I help my loved ones to plan theirs?

"Death is a part life and I now feel more comfortable talking about it.”

Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity producing a free training DVD demonstrating how the creative arts can be used to start conversations about death. Aimed at trainers, activity co-ordinators, care home staff, creative professionals and community groups, the DVD will be released later this summer.

To request a free copy of the training pack email miendoflifecare@gstt.nhs.uk by July 15 2011.

For information about our work visit http://www.gsttcharity.org.uk/projects/eolc.html