Malin Eneslätt wants to initiate more conversations about death, dying and grief. This can be done, for example, with the help of the Dö bra deck of cards, which will now be produced in digital form.
Text: Annika Lund, first published in Medicinsk Vetenskap nr 1 2025
Malin Eneslätt is a researcher at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics at Karolinska Institutet and at the Department of Health, Education and Technology at Luleå University of Technology. She researches death from a public health perspective.
- We try to strengthen the preparedness to handle issues related to end-of-life among individuals and groups in society.
Can you give an example of how you work?
- One example is that we try to initiate conversations about death, dying, and grief by creating forums where it is okay to make death a little more present in everyday life. In the past, when most people cared for their dying relatives themselves, there was a greater knowledge about what to do in that situation. Nowadays, death is more of a medical event handled by healthcare providers. A public health perspective on the end-of-life focuses on the fact that everyone will face death and dying at some point. As researchers, we work with various societal organisations on proactive measures to increase people's ability to better handle and make informed decisions about the last period of life.
How does it work?
- One example is the DöBra card deck , which contains questions about what is important to us at the end of life. It can be used at different ages and for different purposes. For a younger person, it might mainly be about opening up to these questions. When they return to them later, they might have changed their mind. We know from both mine and other's research that our experiences of what is important before death change over time. This type of conversation can also strengthen relationships. We sometimes receive emails with stories about friends or married couples who have learnt something new about each other by talking about these questions. We are now developing a digital version of the DöBra card deck. The physical paper version is sold out but will be reprinted. However, we researchers do not make any financial profit from the sale.
What is your other research about?
- In another project, we are investigating how workplaces can better support employees who are going through difficult life events and grief, perhaps because they themselves suffer from a serious illness or because their relatives have died or become ill and need care and support. Together with three workplaces in northern Sweden, we will develop and evaluate strategies for promoting compassion at work. This is part of a larger EU-funded project on what is called compassionate workplaces. Previous studies have shown that the support we receive in our daily lives can be just as important as professional support. The project is being conducted in several EU countries simultaneously.
