Learn about a movement with a goal to train 1 million death doulas around the world.
My guest Suzanne O’Brien RN is the founder and CEO of Doulagivers Institute and a pioneer in the global death doula movement. She was awarded Worldwide Leader in Healthcare by the International Nurse Association and named Humanitarian Ambassador for Oprah Magazine in 2019. She discusses her experiences bringing death doula trainings to an international audience and her goal to train 1 million people to be death doulas. Learn more at her website:
This episode includes:
- How Suzanne ended up becoming a hospice nurse and then creating Doulagivers Institute
- Following intuition to find our path
- Gaps that exist in hospice care, including that families don’t receive training for caring for a loved one
- Why we need the Good Death Campaign to train 1 million people as death doulas
- The benefits of having a “roadmap” for the end of life
- How Death Doula World Training Day will benefit the end-of-life movement in Guatemala
- What Suzanne learned about life and death on a trip to Zimbabwe
- The greatest lesson Suzanne has learned from working with the dying
- There’s a huge need for death doulas now and in the future
- The need for death doulas to do community education
Links mentioned in this episode:
- NEW! Additional Live screening and discussion for documentary film The Last Ecstatic Days. Register here.
- Find other screening dates for The Last Ecstatic Days here
- Register for Death Doula World Training Day – April 18th at 7 pm Eastern
- NEW Gift Guides for Caregivers, People Receiving Care, and People Who are Grieving
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