Welcome

It is often only when serious illness strikes, someone close to us dies, or we approach the end of life ourselves that we begin to confront death and share our thoughts on healthcare decisions, saying goodbye and grief. But these are not questions only for our final days; facing them earlier gives us more time to understand what we want and to let those around us know what matters most.

Under this year's theme, “Turning Death into Daily Conversation”, the Live Well Die Well Conference 2026 brings together academics, healthcare professionals, social service practitioners and speakers from Hong Kong and overseas. The programme connects research, frontline practice and everyday experience to explore end-of-life care, healthcare autonomy, grief and loneliness, AI, spirituality, as well as the experiences and needs of LGBTQ+ and other communities that are often overlooked in end-of-life care.

Death comes to everyone, but the choices available to us, the care we receive, and whether the people and relationships that matter to us are recognised are not equal. For LGBTQ+ people, questions about who is recognised as family, who can be present at the end of life, and whether one's wishes will be heard can have very real consequences. This year's conference brings some of these less openly discussed issues to the forefront, making room for experiences that are often overlooked and asking how professional services can better respond to different needs.

This is not a conference only for professionals. We want to bring the latest research into frontline practice, while bringing frontline experience back into academic and public discussion. Whether you are a healthcare professional, social worker, researcher, student, or simply someone interested in life and death, the conference offers a chance to encounter research, experiences, and stories that we do not often have the opportunity to hear, and to consider a simple question: if we talked about death earlier, might we also have a clearer idea of how we want to live?

Join us on 22 November for a conversation that may be difficult to begin, but concerns every one of us.