Andrea Metcalfe says we need to talk about death to help us live better lives.
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Ms Metcalfe, a "death doula", urged people to "start talking about the fears we have around death".
"We have so much fear about what death is and what's after, we don't talk. It's easier if we push it away and not have it in everyday life," Ms Metcalfe said.
But keeping death as a taboo subject meant people weren't as prepared when they faced it.
The Newcastle Herald spoke to Ms Metcalfe to mark Dying to Know Day on Tuesday, which urged people to plan for death.
"If you know how you want to die, you can find out a lot about how you want to live," she said.
Ms Metcalfe, of Stockton, is a mental health nurse who hails from Switzerland.
"When I came here, I realised people don't talk about death," she said.
"It's such an important aspect of life - it affects us all. With death and dying, everybody has a story to tell."
She believes people need support and education to help them face death.
"If people were more open about it, it would be easier to reach out and ask for help. I really want to start to have conversations with people to familiarise themselves with death," she said.
Professor Samar Aoun, a palliative care researcher with The University of Western Australia, said "death is over-medicalised, institutionalised and relegated to healthcare professionals".
Professor Aoun said this culture had "deskilled the community as partners in end-of-life care".
"Improving death literacy through education is a critical prerequisite to enabling meaningful change in end-of-life care and planning," she said.
Ms Metcalfe said it was worth people preparing "an end-of-life plan".
This involves conversations about the type of healthcare treatment people want at the end of their lives, who should make healthcare and other decisions for them and any personal or financial matters that need to be dealt with.
Other matters are options to prepare for death and dying, where people want to die, who they want around them at that time and what type of funeral or ritual they want to mark their death.
Michelle Knox, of the Central Coast, said she discussed her end-of-life wishes with her dad before he died in 2017.
Ms Knox said people speak about "having your affairs in order", but "no one tells you what they are".
"My dad talked to us and we had things put in place," she said.
Her dad took care of his financial matters before he died and said he wanted to be cremated.
"He didn't want a big fuss or celebration. He wanted it to be quite simple and wanted to die at home, if he could," she said.
"We were able to honour that and we did the funeral the way he wanted," she said.
This helped prevent "guilt and regret".
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