Meet: The Hospice Care Plan & Linda McDowell
When people learn you work in end of life care, they say things like, “That’s so interesting,” or “I could never do that.” Sometimes the reaction is positive and sometimes it’s negative, but in both cases there is often an unspoken question—why on earth would you want to do THAT? There are lots of reasons. […]
Death in Pop Culture
This past week I was speaking to an acquaintance, someone I have known for a while but don’t know well. Somehow it came up that I work in end of life care and death planning. The woman’s eyes lit up. “Like Swedish Death Cleaning?” she asked. To be honest, I don’t know much about Swedish […]
Benny and Nick Capaul
If you are a part of the IDLM community, you’re probably the type of person who is interested in conversations about death. So you have learned by now, as so many of us have learned, that once you start talking about death, it can be difficult to stop! There is so much to know and […]
Back To School
It’s still hot out, but autumn is right around the corner, and that means back to school time. The tradition of school terms starting in the fall goes back at least a hundred and fifty years in the United States. Schools took summer off because so many of the students came from farming families. They […]
Life Event Rituals
Every human life is filled with rituals, even if we don’t always think of them that way. Small daily rituals like brushing our teeth, weekly rituals of going to church or getting together with friends, annual rituals of celebrating birthdays and holidays. All these rituals, big and small, give shape and order to our lives. […]
Summer Summit 2024
At International Doula Life Movement, our top priority is making sure all of our students have access to in depth, comprehensive training for working with end of life patients. We are proud to say that even our basic course is constantly being enhanced with new information, staying as current as possible with new advances in […]
Dealing With Sudden Death
As doulas, when most of us imagine a case we might work on, I think we generally envision a situation where someone is nearing death but still communicative. We plan on being able to ask them about their wishes and talk with the family about what is going to happen, we prepare ourselves to guide […]
Extensive Advance Directive Training is a Win-Win-Win
As an end of life/death educator, I have learned first hand that our role starts “in the now” when it comes to advance care planning. Through my 25 years of death doulaship, I have seen that the doula skill set provides a perfect match to help others with end of life conversations and the questions […]
Pediatrics and End of Life
For this week’s blog, we are excited to spotlight two more of the experts scheduled to speak at IDLM’s upcoming Tree of Life Conference. Toula Saratsis is an end of life doula who specializes in pediatric care. From her bio: Toula is a Certified End-of-Life Doula who specializes in perinatal and pediatric palliative care, end-of-life, […]
Not Dead Yet
Don’t let yourself start making the mistake of thinking of terminal patients only in terms of their illness. Instead, keep looking at the mother/father/grandparent/brother/sister/beloved friend who is still there with you, living and breathing, ready to talk about the things they care about, everything they have done in their life, and even the things they still want to do. Maybe you can help them do those things! There is still time.
