Augmento Mori — Death Complexity Map

Kastenbaum / Lancet Commission Framework  ·  Design Interventions Overlay  ·  Mona M. Hamdy, SCAD MFA 2026

Augmento Mori
HeartBloom
Reinforcing loop
Balancing loop
System node
SOCIOCULTURAL SYSTEM beliefs · norms · taboo · policy · economics DEATH AVOIDANCE taboo · silence · fear MEDICALIZATION hospital · clinical · detached INSTITUTIONAL CARE ICU · hospice · policy DEATH LITERACY education · awareness COMMUNITY NETWORKS grief · ritual · belonging PATIENT AUTONOMY dignity · agency · wishes CAREGIVER BURDEN SPIRITUAL / CULTURAL ritual · meaning-making STRUCTURAL INEQUITY IMPENDING death Augmento Mori UPSTREAM INTERVENTION death literacy · community reduces taboo conversation → normalization HeartBloom DOWNSTREAM INTERVENTION dignity · agency · integration restores dignity agency → integration R1: Medicalization loop R2: Avoidance B1: Community care B2: Literacy UPSTREAM (cultural shift) DOWNSTREAM (clinical dignity) complementary intervention spectrum Anam Cara
Augmento Mori
Upstream intervention · Cultural system lever
Where it sits: At the intersection of Death Avoidance, Death Literacy, and Community Networks. Augmento Mori operates before the clinical encounter — in homes, classrooms, community centers, and faith spaces. It is a cultural intervention that targets the reinforcing feedback loop sustaining death as taboo (R2).
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Breaks R2: By creating structured, psychologically safe spaces for mortality conversation, it disrupts the avoidance loop before medicalization takes hold.
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Feeds B2: Builds death literacy across four cohorts — Community, Medical, Deathcare, Caregivers — activating the balancing loop that counteracts taboo reinforcement.
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Strengthens B1: Game-based peer interaction builds community networks and shared grief frameworks, reinforcing communal care over institutional death.
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Anam Cara methodology: The accompaniment-based facilitation tradition embedded in the game design carries the spiritual and relational layer of the Celtic "soul friend" tradition directly into the system.
HeartBloom
Downstream intervention · Clinical system lever
Where it sits: At the intersection of Institutional Care, Patient Autonomy, and Caregiver Burden. HeartBloom operates inside the clinical encounter — within the hospital, palliative unit, or hospice context. It is a service design intervention that targets the reinforcing loop that depersonalizes dying within medical systems (R1).
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Disrupts R1: By giving the dying person agency over their environment, communication, and care preferences, HeartBloom rehumanizes the institutional context — slowing the medicalization reinforcing loop from within.
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Restores Patient Autonomy: HIPAA-compliant tiered consent model, environmental controls, and spiritual care integration directly address the dignity gap identified across all four research cohorts.
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Reduces Caregiver Burden: Distributes the invisible labor of caregiving across a shared-visibility care network — family, medical team, spiritual care, and community.
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Grounded in EBD: Built on Ulrich's Theory of Supportive Design — perceived environmental control, social support, and positive distraction — as clinically validated end-of-life care mechanisms.