Looking Back, Looking Ahead Assessing the End of the Year

The end of the year is an opportunity for introspection, for people and corporations alike. It is a time that invites us to reflect on the past and to consider the future. The new year transition is accompanied by familiar rituals; the count-down to midnight, festive hats, glasses, and horns, and new year’s resolutions. At the same time, the new year encourages us to take-stock of our accomplishments and create plans for the year to come.

At the close of 2018 we trained 639 new end-of-life doulas. With each year surpassing the previous one, we are proud to have trained a total of 1,339 INELDA end of life doulas. To help meet the interest and demand for our training, we expanded our group of instructors to six by welcoming Kris Kington-Barker, Shelby Kirillin, and Nicole Heidbreder. Having this number of trainers prepares us well for the 15 trainings we have scheduled in 2019. It will also allow us to offer new classes, help more hospices to develop doula programs, and create other services.

In further reflecting on 2018, we have to honor the 621 doulas we trained in the past three years who have requested a Certification Packet. The certification packet involves a doula in a rigorous process that leads to what we believe is the highest, professional-level credential in the end of life doula field.

From the very beginning of INELDA, in early 2015, we knew that certification must include work in the field, demonstrations of knowledge and skills through reported interactions, evaluations, letters of reference, signing a scope of practice and code of ethics, and more. We were sure that as the field developed, hospices and individuals seeking doulas would want to know that the doulas they considered working with were well trained and tested in the field. That is exactly what our training and certification process delivers.

In an effort to improve and enrich our training this year, we added an online portion to it. Four hours of video segments, PowerPoint presentations, and self-directed exercises have now become mandatory work prior to the in-person part of the training. We have found this to be extremely beneficial, because it allowed us to increase our course content while fully preparing our incoming doulas for the intensive, experiential part of the training. Our attendees walk in the door of our training enthusiastic and eager!

This year also saw our expansion into other class offerings: Business Development and Guided Imagery. We created these offerings as a direct result of feedback from our doulas. We taught the important tools of creating a private doula business to 87 doulas. In the first half of 2019, we will offer two more in-person Business Development classes. By the summer we plan to turn this class into an online offering, which we believe will make it much more accessible to a larger number of doulas. Our vision for the coming year includes developing other classes based on what you tell us you would like to learn.

Developing strong partnerships with other organizations (announcements to come—#TeaserAlert) is another goal for 2019. Our first partnership is with The New York Open Center. Founded in 1984, the New York Open Center has evolved into an urban destination for holistic learning, personal development, professional advancement, and enrichment. In 2019 The New York Open Center will become the exclusive location for all of our New York area trainings.

As INELDA grows over the next year and beyond, we intend to do that while holding firm to our foundational values. One of those values, Inclusivity, which you can find among others on our website states: To see that our educational products and program services are equally available to all people, no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, in any country or environment, at the same time that we take into account the social traditions and spiritual perspectives of the cultures where we work. To that end we have set up a scholarship fund for people of color who wish to bring the INELDA training and doula work to their communities.

Other accomplishments of 2018 include:

• Participation in the Reimagine event in San Francisco; then again in New York, presenting “A Ritual for After the Last Breaths,” in collaboration with Amy Cunningham, founder of Fitting Tribute Funeral Service. In Reimagine New York we also facilitated and participated in a panel discussion on “Disparities and Discrimination in End of Life Care for People of Color,” in partnership with the Open Center.
•  INELDA was selected to serve on the End of Life Doula Council, created by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), to educate and inform its members about the value of including doulas as an extra layer of support to their dying patients and families.
• We spoke at the National Funeral Directors Association’s annual convention in Salt Lake City on how doulas can bridge to their services.
• We initiated a Mentoring program to assist doulas in further developing their skills and/or establishing a private practice.
• We co-sponsored Kimberly Paul’s Living Well, Dying Well Tour across the United States. We will interview her in our January 2019 member-only webinar.

Perhaps our biggest accomplishment of 2018, and the greatest honor we have as an organization, is to have served you our newsletter readers with informative and engaging content, our doulas with an improved training and new classes, and our loyal members with discounts on classes and webinars with leaders in end of life care. In 2019, we fully intend to continue serving you with offerings of the highest quality.