What is an EOL Doula?
End-of-Life doulas offer compassionate, thoughtful end-of-life support to individuals and their chosen families. An end-of-life doula is community-based and does not provide clinical care. Doula services may complement hospice or palliative care or be tailored to meet specific needs. Approaching the end of one’s life is an extraordinarily unique process. Our services will adapt to and accommodate your chosen end-of-life experience.
Depending on the need and priorities, services may include
Partnering with a dying person and others of their choosing at any point following a terminal diagnosis, especially in the last months of life, to offer emotional, spiritual, and physical support.
Offering information to help the dying person and others make choices about or understand the nature of the dying process.
Facilitate a life review that helps a dying person and those close to them look at what has been essential to that person throughout their life, what they have learned, the values they have come to hold, their impact on the people they have lived among, and what they consider to be their legacy.
Support a dying person and loved ones in extracting from this life review the material they might want to use to create a remembrance project, often called a legacy project. This project may reflect who the dying person has been and the impact they will leave behind on people and their community.
Plan for their wishes during the last days of life, including where they want to be, the ambiance, interactions, and sensory experience.
Assist with non-clinical/non-medical care of the dying person. The EOL doula will not perform any medical assessment or intervention.
Assist in developing rituals grounded in the meaning of death and grief.
Offer resources, guidance, and support in navigating what to do after someone dies.
The North Coast EOL Collective is committed to upholding a standard of doula practice based on Excellence, Compassion, Fidelity, Service, Training. We recognize the Peaceful Presence Project as the primary doula training program in Oregon.
Chronology - EOL/Death Care Movement
Note that this chronology is not exhaustive but offers a general understanding of the development and growth of the death positive or end of life movement in the United States. As societal attitudes continue to evolve, it is likely that this movement will keep expanding and diversifying. Illustrating the complex and multidimensional nature of the death positive movement, which encompasses various initiatives, organizations, and events that contribute to a more open and accepting culture around death and dying.