March 2022

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MARCH 2022

[VIEW ARCHIVE]

EOL innovators in the UK: creating communities of care for the living and the dying

by Liana L. Chang

As the birthplace of the modern hospice movement, the natural burial movement, and Death Cafe, it’s unsurprising that the U.K. has earned a global reputation as “the best place in the world to die.” But according to Anna Lyons, end-of-life doula and coauthor of the recently published book We All Know How This Ends: Lessons About Life and Living From Working With Death and Dying, “Just because the U.K. is deemed to provide the best end-of-life care in the world doesn’t mean we are good enough. It just means we are not as shit as the rest of the world.”

DOULA Profile
Karen Bellone, The Seventh Sense and Exit Strategy for the Dying
Bio: Karen Bellone is an INELDA-certified end-of-life doula, transition guide, and death educator. She has a private practice in New York’s Hudson Valley, where she is an integral part of a worldwide community that is reigniting the wisdom of death within our modern lives. Prior to embracing her passion for end-of-life work, Karen had a long, ongoing career as an award-winning filmmaker and internationally collected photographer.
Q&A with Karen
When and why did you decide to become an end-of-life doula?
I have been inspired by the mystery of death throughout my life. After living through less-than-perfect deaths of precious loved ones when I was young, I became acutely aware of just how many things do not necessarily go right in the 11th hour. I realized that I needed to find a better way to be present for those I loved and to ease their transitions. In 2016, after many years working as a filmmaker and photographer, I answered a growing passion to seek out ways to use my skills to create visual and auditory tools for those transitioning in death—to create ways and means to calm, comfort, and assuage fears and anxieties, to clear a path for a good death. I believe bearing witness in death for one another is a gift, and a responsibility of our humanity. I had never heard of an end-of-life doula before, but in researching the field I discovered INELDA, as well as other organizations offering training, and decided to embark upon this life-changing path.

UPCOMING EVENTS

14
March

Peer Mentoring & Support Group – BIPOC

Second Monday of every month, 7:00–8:30 p.m. (ET). This is a space for members who are INELDA-trained BIPOC doulas to connect with a diverse doula body, collaborate, and share ideas, experiences, and feelings from culturally specific perspectives. Log in through your member account.

17
march

Peer Mentoring & Support Group – PRIDE

Third Thursday of every month, 7:00–8:30 p.m. (ET). This is a space for members who are INELDA-trained LGBTQIA2S+ doulas to hear each other, support each other, encourage each other, and learn from each other in a safe space. Log in through your member account.

29
march

Training Scholarship Applications Close for June Trainings
Scholarship applications for our 2022 June EOLD trainings and Care Partners Class are due by this day.

30
march

Getting Started: An Interactive Marketing Workshop to Build Visibility for Your Doula Work

Wednesday, 7:00–8:30 p.m. (ET). Join INELDA directors of program development and marketing, Dr. Jamie Eaddy Chism and Cloud Conrad, for an interactive member workshop. During this session, we will work on creating your action plan to build visibility, credibility, and contacts – helping connect you to the work.

1
april

End-of-Life Doula Training Registrations Open for June

Training registrations open for our 2022 June training. Doula training is for those who intend to serve the dying as part of a hospice program, in a hospital or care facility, through a community program, in a doula collective, or independently.

6
april

Peer Mentoring & Support Group – INELDA Doulas

First Wednesday of every month, 7:00–8:30 p.m. (ET). We will discuss creative ways to find and work with clients and other topics relevant to the group. Log in through your member account.

ONGOING

Care Partners Class Registration Open for April Training

Training registration is open for the Care Partners Class that begins April 19. This four-session, 12-hour class will explore mortality and teach participants how to be a compassionate and knowledgeable guide to friends and loved ones when they enter the dying process.

ongoing

End-of-Life Doula Training Registration Open for Spring 2022

Registration is open for our 2022 April and May trainings. Doula training is for those who intend to serve the dying as part of a hospice program, in a hospital or care facility, through a community program, in a doula collective, or independently.

ongoing

Grief and Loss Counseling and Support Services

INELDA offers one-on-one counseling and emotional support to our trained members, Care Partners Class graduates, and current EOL doula students. The 45-minute sessions will be held online via Zoom. Please contact us at [email protected] to schedule an intake call and appointment.

MEDIA OF THE MONTH

Moon Manor

Machete Bang Bang and Erin Granat, the directors of Moon Manor, sat down for an in-depth conversation with INELDA trainers Dr. Jamie Eaddy Chism and Shelby Kirillin, and director of marketing Cloud Conrad. The film centers on main character Jimmy’s last day alive. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Jimmy, played by James Carrozo, has decided to die as he has lived—with intention, humor, and zest. In his last day on earth, he’ll show an obituary writer, his death doula, his estranged brother, his caretaker, a surreal being, and the guests at his fabulous FUN-eral that perhaps the art of dying is actually the art of living.

INELDA Q&A with Moon Manor Film Makers

Marketing Matters: turning stats into stories

by Cloud Conrad

According to research from Kaiser Family Foundation and The Economist, three in four adults have not documented their end-of-life wishes for medical treatment. A 2016 four-country survey of aging and end-of-life care revealed that a little over 25% of all respondents have written down their end-of-life wishes.

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation and The Economist, Four-Country Survey of Aging and End-of-Life, 2016

Regarding the three in four who haven’t prepared end-of-life documents—why? Half say they haven’t gotten around to it. Over a third of respondents appear either to not know about or to understand why or how to use end-of-life medical care documents. For end-of-life doulas, this presents an enormous opportunity.

INELDA UPDATE
PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT SURVEY ON LEARNING AND TOPICS OF INTEREST
We want and need to hear from you to help us continue cultivating learning experiences that meet your needs. Thanks to previous feedback from you, we learned there was a growing demand for end-of-life care information from people who are not seeking a doula’s path, leading us to develop our Care Partners Class. We will continue to introduce new learning experiences to support doulas and non-doulas alike. Your input is essential to our program and curriculum planning. Please help us by completing this survey before March 31, 2022.

INELDA IS HIRING TRAINERS
We are seeking energetic, knowledgeable, and experienced end-of-life doulas with a background in facilitating and teaching classes and/or workshops effectively. If you are a compelling speaker, able to engage with large groups, have experience functioning in the role of an EOL doula, and are committed to sharing in the responsibility of creating a more just, diverse, and inclusive environment for end-of-life care, check out this new job listing.

INELDA FOCUS GROUP COMPLETED
Over the summer of 2021, volunteers participated in a series of six focus groups. The goal of the focus groups was to provide valuable input into envisioning the future direction of the organization’s work and offerings in an effort to provide continued support for INELDA-trained doulas. INELDA is grateful for everyone who shared their opinions, suggestions, and ideas. We look forward to implementing many of the strategies and visions that were shared. The final report was submitted to INELDA’s board of trustees at the end of February. If you volunteered and have not yet chosen your compensation gift, feel free to email us with any questions.


NEWLY CERTIFIED DOULAS
Congratulations to Margie Rodgers and Dawn Van Camp, who have completed their INELDA doula certification in the past few months! Thank you both for your deep dedication to the work and commitment to changing the face of dying.

INELDA DOULAS IN THE NEWS
INELDA-trained doula Karen Murray was interviewed by Colleen Bidwill in Marin Independent Journal about her doula work in Mill Valley, California. Trainer Garrett Drew Ellis wrote a piece on the benefits and challenges of supporting Black and brown businesses for Assets, a community business nonprofit.

INELDA’S march WEBINAR
Monthly Member Webinar

Getting Started: An Interactive Marketing Workshop to Build Visibility for Your Doula Work
*Wednesday, March 30th, 7:00-8:30 p.m. (ET)*
Join INELDA directors of program development and marketing, Dr. Jamie Eaddy Chism and Cloud Conrad, for an interactive member workshop. During this session, we will work on creating your action plan to build visibility, credibility, and contacts – helping connect you to the work. Whether just starting out as a doula or doing this work for some time, participants will walk away with ideas, tools, and best practices to implement right away. Workshop includes a digital worksheet to download and use during the session. Join us for an evening of inspiration, ideation, and implementation planning for doula marketing in this season of rebirth.

PRACTICE CORNER

TOOLBOX TIPS
	I’ve found that if I have a conversation with a potential client via phone or Zoom prior to our first in-person meeting, I have a better sense of the environment I will be entering.
During this conversation, I ask specific questions that allow me to understand the client’s comfort level with current COVID-19 protocols, who else resides in the home, who else may be present during our meetings, and many other details.
—Angela Laakso, Astral Dragonfly, LLC

SHARING SOURCES
Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance
Eighteen million people die in unnecessary pain and distress each year, with around 80% of the world’s population lacking adequate access to the medications needed for hospice and palliative care. The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), a London-based nonprofit established in 2008, seeks to ensure everyone has access to palliative care. The organization is currently made up of 347 national and regional hospice and palliative care organizations, as well as affiliate organizations supporting hospice and palliative care, representing 100 countries across the globe. WHPCA believes “that no one with a life-limiting condition, such as cancer or HIV, should live and die with unnecessary pain and distress.” The group’s vision “is a world with universal access to hospice and palliative care.” The alliance works through global advocacy, policy engagement, sharing resources, and raising funds to ensure everyone has equal access to palliative care funded by governments across the world.

ASK INELDA

I am wondering about the importance and the meaning of having a doula who shares the spiritual traditions of the person who is dying. How important is it for doulas to have the same faith tradition as their clients or to help facilitate faith leaders to come to sit with clients bedside? —January training participant

Trainer Nicole Heidbreder: We have had people come through the doula training who specifically want to go back and work within their faith communities—there is a definite niche for it. I would only add that if you feel that proclivity, I encourage you to make it clear on your website or within your beginning conversations with people. As for bringing in people from the dying person’s spiritual community, this happens quite a lot. READ MORE

Please submit questions to [email protected]

Self-Care Prescription

How to Handle a Stressful Listening Situation

We often go from one situation to another without transition. This can leave one fatigued by the end of the day. Many times, we forget to come back to ourselves. We can lose our ground and begin feeling overwhelmed. When we listen to loss or trauma, our brain mirrors the client’s brain; science has proven that the same areas of our own brain become activated. It is critical we come back to ourselves after listening.

When you have just left a stressful listening situation:

Stop, pause, and connect to your breath. Feel your body.

Acknowledge that you are transitioning and focus on your in-breath and then your out-breath.

Notice what you feel and need, reconnecting and grounding back into your body.

Pause, breathe, and be conscious of leaving this situation.

Reconnect with yourself before moving on.

—Bridget McFarthing

News Briefs

States Continue to Struggle With Implementing MAiD Laws

Medical aid in dying continues to be a controversial issue across the United States. Only 11 states and the District of Columbia have authorized MAiD through legislation, ballot measures, or the courts. Yet in a Gallup poll conducted in May 2020, 74% of people agreed that: “When a person has a disease that cannot be cured…doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient’s life by some painless means if the patient and his or her family request it.” Majority support in that poll included every demographic group measured, including men, women, White people, people of color, every age category from 18 to 55+, political party designation, and education level. READ MORE

Medicare Paying Twice for End-of-Life Care Services

In the period of 2010 through 2019, Medicare paid $6.6 billion to nonhospice providers for services to patients who were enrolled in hospice care. The causes of the duplicate payments aren’t entirely clear, which is why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General has recommended that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services study the question of hospice reimbursement reform. READ MORE

Veterans Survival Rates Better in VA Hospitals

Veterans transported by ambulance to Veterans Affairs hospitals had a 20% lower mortality rate at 30 days than veterans taken to non-VA hospitals. This result was consistent across men and women, patient age groups, and different types of pre-existing conditions. However, Black and Hispanic patients, and those patients taken to a VA hospital where they had been treated in the past, had the most pronounced mortality advantage. READ MORE

The Final Word

I am ASer.
Xiaoyin Deng Translated by Di Zou / UN
Modern medicine is unable to heal me. AS damages my joints, I can’t move freely; AS melds my vertebrae, I can’t stand tall or breathe as normal; AS makes me frail, I can’t sleep nor thrive. Sometimes I think having AS is cruel—at any moment, the Sword of Damocles could fall. Sometimes I think having AS is lucky—the Sword is only hanging. Even in sickness, I retain my ability to learn, work, and ponder. And in the good days, life is a wild dance under the sun, With a dark cloud crossing my mind, only occasionally. But when illness strikes, I realize I should have been held captive, not wishing for more. All the sunny days and gentle breeze are all but stolen. I will fret, detest, and reprimand myself. After all, who wants to be so young, yet so constrained? Who wants to say yes to such an arrangement? I’m not going to be preposterous. I know I must put up a peaceful resistance By unyielding in setback, by compromise but not giving in. I know to halt is for going further, I know I can make something out of nothing. I know there are pains that I must bear, And certain happiness that I must forego. I know I must try harder, alone. Rarely anyone endorses my belief, Yet I persevere In my journey to find courage and wisdom, And to take responsibility for my own decisions. Even though my heart trembles from fear, when writing down this line. More importantly, I understand Although I don’t have a good deck of cards, Although the same effort cannot bring the same result, I still believe the journey itself is glory. Because life is not just about how high one reaches at the end But more about how far one rises above the self, And rises above what was given by life.
Editors’ note: Ankylosing spondylitis, or AS, is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that can cause vertebrae to fuse.

© INELDA 2021 International End of Life Doula Association is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization
Tax ID#: 47-3023741

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