What is an End of Life Doula?
A Doula serves one individual/family at a time, providing non-medical, non-judgmental, holistic support and comfort for clients living with a terminal diagnosis, by companioning them emotionally, physically and spiritually, however that is uniquely defined by that person.
Long before the care of hospice becomes part of one’s support team, a Doula can begin an important relationship with someone unexpectedly facing their mortality. Later, they fill in the gaps left by chaplains, social workers, palliative-care teams and hospice services with so many other responsibilities.
An End-of-Life Doula can return a sense of the sacred to a process that has become more medicalized and less compassionate. Through meaning-directed life review and insight into the dying process, there can be a difference in how everyone involved experiences the final journey of life.