Picking Up Momentum

We hope that 2016 will be a year of great growth and increased exposure for the International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA). As of February 2016, we will enter our second full year of existence. Much of 2015 was spent in establishing our organization and just beginning our work in helping hospices create end-of-life doula programs and certifying end-of-life doulas.

But we were also blessed to garner some excellent exposure for the end-of-life doula approach through different media. Kris Kington-Barker, a host of the KCBX public radio show Central Coast Voices in California, did an hour-long interview with the volunteer manager for a hospice doula program INELDA helped create and myself called: “End-of-life Doulas.” In the fall, Steve Adubato, host of the NJTV public television show, Caucus: New Jersey, did a discussion show entitled: “End-of-Life Doulas,” with a panel made up of an end-of-life doula, the volunteer manager from Holy Name Hospice that has one of our end-of-life doula programs, the medical director from Valley Hospice, that has another doula program I started, and myself. That program will be broadcast multiple times during 2016. And NextAve.org, a national media service for America’s 50+ population, interviewed Meredith Lawida, Executive Director of INELDA, for an article entitled “How a Death Doula Can Help Patients and Families.”

This year we hope to dramatically expand our exposure in the public consciousness and to support the development of more hospice end-of-life doula programs. We also plan on training and certifying a great many more doulas through our direct end-of-life doula training classes. (See our Training Schedule here.)

The movement to make dying in this country more sacred and meaningful is picking up momentum. But we all have a part to play in making sure the movement continues to grow and have a greater impact. For INELDA, that role is to speak out more and more about how dying can be transformed by the approach and tools our end-of-life doula model champions; to build the national pool of death doulas; and to help more institutions bring the end-of-life doula approach to their patients and families. We are dedicated to doing our part this year with all the energy and resources we can muster.

You can help by talking about death and dying with your friends and family members. Open up the topic, break through peoples’ fear, and help them to see that talking about dying really is about living in a deeper way that will enrich their lives. And please join INELDA; become an active member; take a training course when we offer one you can get to, and donate what you can to make this the year we leap ahead.

It will take all our efforts to finally transform our end-of-life healthcare system. Working together we can help hospices and palliative care programs provide greater comfort to the dying and lessen the suffering of family and friends. Our efforts will also shine a light on the benefit of exploring meaning as people create beautiful memory books, videos, or life scrolls. These amazing artifacts of a person’s life remind their loved ones of their legacies as they inform and inspire future generations.

I have this dream that one day people everywhere will have the choice to be guided and companioned by end-of-life doulas during their final days of life. Please help make this dream a reality.

I am deeply grateful for the support, kind words of encouragement and heart-felt messages that INELDA has received during our first year from all of you.