Critical Info

Critical Info is a platform supporting communities across Australia connecting them with specialists in deathcare, bereavement, and end-of-life planning sectors. The weekly Don’t Be Caught Dead podcast, launched in February 2023, forms part of this education platform allowing people to listen to the stories told by people who have experienced the death of a loved one and learn from the knowledge of experts in the deathcare industry. In response to community feedback, we released a Guide entitled My loved one has died, what do I do now? in April of this year. The goal of this guide is simple: to help ease the stress and uncertainty of dealing with estates and end-of-life arrangements. The guide covers the first hours, days, weeks and months after a loved one dies, stepping you through a prioritised list of tasks you will need to complete, from the funeral arrangements to finalising the estate. When a loved one dies most people use the same funeral director they have previously. However, the Bare Funeral Report ‘Australian Funeral Industry State of the Nation 2021’ indicates: “We want personalised, unique ceremonies and memorials for our loved ones, but we don’t know what our options are”. Critical Info allows people to discover end-of-life options they may have never heard of such as the Australian Home Funeral Alliance. We are a social enterprise, not aligned with a funeral business. We are not the industry voice, we connect you with those who are; over 200 organisations in end-of-life planning, deathcare and bereavement and unlike existing funeral directories, no financial incentives are paid to them, nor to Critical Info. Our podcast allows people to listen to others with lived experience and learn that end-of-life planning is crucial in reducing prolonged complex grief and stress when a loved one dies. Our founder, Catherine Ashton, often makes comparison to the deathcare industry being where the mental health industry was 10 – 15 years ago.