Please find answers to some of the common questions we get asked below.
FAQs
What are Employee wellbeing programmes?
We will work with your company to create a tailored support programme.
This can be an overview of Advance Planning for End of Life in a group discussion to start the thinking process, and is positioned as an aspect of Life Planning, or it could be advice on curated resources, eulogies and legacies. It could be a workshop with scenarios and conversation openers to a one on one offering for individual employee support if they have a family member who has received a terminal diagnosis.
How about Confidentiality?
Employees can be confident that any discussion will remain confidential – and are between them and either Louise or Penny at Better Endings.
If I have a family member with dementia how does Better Endings help?
We will help you understand the implications of dementia at the end of life, help you put in place Lasting Power of Attorney agreements, and help you with Advance Care Planning. We can help with creating legacy projects.
What is an End of Life Doula?
The role is modelled on a Birth Doula whose role is to provide non-medical support during childbirth, and Doulas are increasingly being employed to be there at the end of life too. We are trained to support the dying and their families with practical and emotional support – from the psychological and physical aspects of dying to the complex clerical stuff afterwards.
There is so much fear and anxiety about death, and the Doula is able to bring a sense of calm to the dying, and to the whole family around them. Doulas help open up the conversation about death and loss which are so often initially deeply uncomfortable for the dying and their family. A lot of people realise on their deathbed that life is about relationships and love, and Doulas help families with communicating this and can help them towards resolving unfinished business, and towards the acceptance of regrets.
We can help with legacy work, creating something tangible, some memento for the dying person to leave behind. We guide a family through the dying process so they know what to expect and what is normal as people enter the active dying phase. We can be there to support the vigil, and after the death to help with the early grief stages when the ‘casserole brigade’ has come and gone and everyone's gone back to work.
When do you begin to work with a Doula?
At any time from the point of diagnosis of a life limiting illness up to the final days. We may remain involved with a family for weeks or months after the death, if it will bring benefit and support them through the early days of bereavement.
Is the Support specific?
Yes – every family is different and we work in a human centered way to ensure that dying well is part of living well.