Tips For Choosing an End-of-Life Doula
What is an End-of-Life Doula, and how can they help?
The essence of EOLD care is to provide non-medical, holistic support and guidance to individuals and families through times of critical, transformative life change.Their role is to nurture, inform, support, guide, empower, and comfort. Typically, an EOLD serves as a kind of project manager who helps to coordinate a wide array of supportive services. Offerings vary by individual doula—some concentrate their focus on just a few specific issues and tasks; others provide a broad spectrum of services which may include but are not limited to the following:
● Education about death and grief to help prepare for anticipated life changes
● Immediate, urgent problem-solving assistance when someone is dying
● Advance care planning assistance (POA for healthcare, living will, authorized personal representative to handle arrangements for final disposition; durable power of attorney, last will and testament, and other paperwork, including writing an obituary)
● Helping people get their affairs in order and saying goodbye
● Organizing important information that will be needed after the death, including notifying key people, writing an obituary, etc.
● Life review/legacy work
● Help planning for final disposition (e.g., burial, cremation, organ donation, etc.)
● Help with choosing and working with hospice and/or other clinical providers; coordinating community resources
● Facilitation of communication between family and friends
● Advocacy and mediation to ensure dying person’s wishes are honored
● Emotional, social, spiritual support for the dying person, their family, and/or other carers
● Non-medical comfort measures for the dying person and/or family (stress reduction, music therapy, aromatherapy, reiki, healing touch, etc.)
● Assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) e.g., personal care tasks such as bathing, dressing, toileting, feeding, etc.
● Help with logistical matters--setting up visiting hours, guidelines, etc., as well as shopping, errands, pet care, child care, transportation, meal preparation, other household tasks.
● Providing respite, companionship, and sitting vigil
● Guidance for after-death care of the body
● After-death support, notifications, communicating with funeral directors, and others
● Creating rituals or ceremonies, memorial service planning
● Wrapping up loose ends
● Offering grief support
How does someone become an End-of-Life Doula?
Currently, EOLDs come from rich and varied backgrounds. Some are formally trained, some are self-taught; some are new to the field, and some have been serving their communities for years. As interest grows in this field, an increased number of instructional programs are being offered--each with their own focus, philosophy, and teaching styles. Facilitated both by private individuals, as well as renowned educational institutions, they present numerous opportunities for people to gain valuable skills and knowledge used when supporting people at the end of life. Certificates of course completion are often awarded by training entities, and many with such training use “certified end-of-life doula” to identify their role. However, the profession is unregulated and EOLDs are not currently eligible for licensure or credentialing by a governmental, third-party, or academic agency or board. If you’d like to learn more about EOLD training programs and how to choose one for your own learning, please visit: https://www.nedalliance.org/choose_eold_trainer.html.
How to find and engage with an End-of-Life Doula
Before you start looking for an EOLD, it helps to do some upfront research and reflection so that you know what options are available to you, and are best suited for your particular circumstances. It’s important to know your own motivation—how, when, where, and why you want or need support--and who else, besides you, will be involved? Even if you are in desperate, immediate need, try to devote enough time and energy to this process so that you find the best match for your personality, beliefs, and type of care. An inexperienced doula with whom you feel a warm rapport may be preferable to a more experienced doula that you can’t communicate with easily. In the end, make sure you hire someone who can provide non-judgmental support for you and your family. Trust your instincts. This is all about getting your needs met.
