End of Life Transitions

Jacqui, promises authenticity, calmness, and compassion as she guides and supports individuals, families, and friends to prepare for the important transitions that occur at, during and after the end of life. This is done through conversations and sharing and fostering a sense that you are not alone. After spending many years as a health professional working in aged and palliative care, I was aware that whilst community and hospital healthcare teams were providing the clinical expertise for end-of-life care, there were significant periods of time where the dying person and their loved ones were having to negotiate, by themselves, the transition of dying. Often feeling quite ‘alone’, somewhat daunted and sometimes ‘scared’. This was whether the person lived at home, or was in hospital or in a nursing home. Personally I have experienced the loss of very close family members and friends — some who had expected deaths and some whose deaths were sudden and unplanned. I have known the extreme pain felt in losing someone who was part of the very fabric of who I am as a person, and acknowledge that the sadness, sense of loss and grief I have felt was a symbol of the love that I felt for the person who has died. These losses have allowed me time to reflect and to appreciate the uniqueness of each individual person; and my evolution to becoming an End of Life Doula. It also has made me see how very important it is to have a ceremony. And it is through ceremony and rituals that we can capture a loved one’s ‘story’ and pay tribute to the life that has been lost.