End Of Life Specialist
What is an End of Life Specialist?
An End of Life Specialist is a DOULA that provides non-medical, non-judgmental support and guidance to individuals and families through times of critical, transformative life change. DOULA’s offer a compassionate presence to help alleviate anxiety and to help organize the family’s needs which ultimately empowers loved ones to be part of the process and the care. Core principles of an End of Life Specialist are:
- To nurture, inform, support, guide, empower and comfort
- To work in tandem with other caregivers and members of the hospice team
- Foster self-determination in their clients by assisting in the gathering of information and encouraging them to make informed choices that are right for them
What does a “good death” mean to you?
- Having control over the specific dying process
- Pain-free status
- Engagement with religion or spirituality
- Experiencing emotional well-being
- Having a sense of life completion or legacy
- Having a choice in treatment preferences
- Experiencing dignity in the dying process
- Having family present and saying goodbye
- Quality of life during the dying process
- A good relationship with health care providers
- Honoring cultural specifics including having pets nearby, etc.
Doulas work in tandem with medical professionals and hospice programs to provide care that integrates the emotional, spiritual and physical support clients and families seek. While the hospice nurse focuses on a patient’s medications, a Death Doula’s role is to provide a patient with comfort. This role is the piece that’s missing from traditional hospice programs. – “It’s the peace that’s missing.”
I help families re-frame the experience of death and dying from one of fear, sadness and overwhelm to one of huge meaning, connection and a potential for emotional healing.