Compassionate Presence at Life’s Sacred Threshold

• INELDA – International End of Life Doula Association
  My professional training organization has a collection of news articles on end-of-life doula services. 
•  What is an end-of-life doula?  
• The Conversation Project
  Encourages open discussion about wishes for care through the end of life. Free guides for navigating talking with healthcare professionals and other related guides.
   

 BOOKS

• The Art of Dying Well by Katy Butler
  Practical wisdom on living fully and dying with peace and intention. 
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
  A compassionate look at how medicine, caregiving, and autonomy intersect at the end of life.  
• Herself to the End by Fran Volkmann- Fran Volkmann chronicles her wife, Joan’s, decision to stop eating and drinking following a dementia diagnosis and the steps she took to achieve a peaceful and dignified death with the support of her medical team, loving partner and friends.  
• Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
  A personal and beautifully written reflection on meaning and mortality. 
• Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman – daily meditations for those grieving. 
• At Peace, Choosing a Good Death After a Long Life by Samuel Harrington, MD- a guide and conversation starter for older Americans seeking control and comfort at the end of life. An antidote to modern overmedicalization that's both simple and sage. 
• The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Frances O'Connor
• All About Love by bell hooks  
• The Worm at the Core by Sheldon Solomon  

ARTICLES

•  Experiences of engaging a death doula: qualitative interviews with bereaved family members (Rawlings D, Van Dinther K,  et al
•  What is good grief support? Exploring the actors and actions in social support after traumatic grief 
•  Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About End‑of‑Life Doulas (Collins EF et al.) 

• Bucks County Area Agency on Aging – provides local senior and caregiver support. 
• Pennsylvania Hospice & Palliative Care Network- provides a directory of agencies. 
• Bucks County Elder Law LLC- provides legal and life-care planning services for seniors and their families, including estate planning, asset protection, Medicaid qualification, and long-term-care strategies. Free booklet to download.

• GriefShare – community grief support groups. 
• Modern Loss – honest conversations about grief and resilience. 
• The Loss Foundation- grief resources, navigating emotions, online support groups (based in UK)

• Triage Cancer-  free Quick Guides, Checklists, Worksheets, and other materials offer legal and practical education on estate planning, and much more for terminal ill and caregivers.
• National Institute on Aging-  offers guidance on the two most common advance directives for health care - the living will and the durable power of attorney for health care. 

• Pennsylvania POLST online form- Pennsylvania Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment- Translates a patient’s goals of care at the end of life into portable medical orders that follow the patient across care settings.   · guides medical team on what patient does and does not want such as resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, food tube, level of care such as comfort only.   A POLST from does not take the place of the POA-HC form. 

• VSED-  voluntarily stopping eating and drinking, is when a competent person makes a deliberate choice to refuse all food and liquids to hasten death. Many people who consider VSED are facing a serious, irreversible illness or a quality of life they find intolerable and want more control over the dying process.  
• Legal VSED form

• Washington Law Help- Online library of Life Planning Forms including Durable power of attorney (POA), VSED, Advanced Directive for Health Care(Living Will), Advance Directive for Living with Dementia, Advance Directive for Mental Health,  Power of Attorney for Parents  

• Earth Funeral-  Soil transformation is a natural, environmentally-friendly alternative to burial and cremation, which is sometimes referred to as "human composting. 
• Aquamation- Aquamation is a gentle process that uses water instead of fire to return a body back to Mother Nature

•  Loose Ends-   organization of volunteers who complete undone textile projects due to death or disability.
• Center for Grief Therapy-  offers a vast array of simple ways to tap into finding an enduring connection at the end of life and in rememberence.
• Remembering a Life- many resources including honoring a life and planning for services.

• A 97-Year-Old Philosopher Faces His Own Death
• Being Mortal (full documentary) | FRONTLINE 
• DYING IS NOT LIKE IN THE MOVIES - Real Talk Podcast with End of Life Expert, Barbara Karnes, RN 
• INELDA & ICJS: Muslim Perspectives on Death and Dying 

•  Hospice Explained