National Home Funeral Alliance – End of Life University

Learn about home funerals and green burials and how to plan ahead for a personalized, Earth-friendly end of life.

PodcastHerring

My guest Lucinda Herring has worked at the cutting edge of the green funeral movement for more than twenty years. Today she is one of the leading voices for more healing and ecological ways to care for our dead. She will discuss how we can prepare in advance for after-death care, including her new book “Reimagining Death: Stories and Practical Wisdom for Home Funerals and Green Burials.”

Learn more at Lucinda’s website:

www.lucindaherring.com

reimaginingdeath

Get the book here.

Listen here:

This interview includes:

What are “advance after-death care directives”
Three stages of dying and death
Why it is important to plan ahead for after death
Current options for green burial
Laws and regulations governing green burial
Benefits of home funerals for families and the dying
Obstacles to home funerals and green burials

Links mentioned in this episode:

Spiritual Journeys in Chronic Illness Course
Beautiful Dying Expo – Nov. 2-3, 2019 – San Diego CA
Reimagining Death by Lucinda Herring
National Home Funeral Alliance
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Today Dr. Karen Wyatt discusses some ideas for building a support community for end-of-life workers and people interested in death and dying. Working in this field can be rather lonely at times as our society still fears and avoids the subject of death. But we need a network of support around us in order to do this challenging work. So here are some ideas for creating our own community of support:

Attend a Death Cafe. Learn more and out if there is a Death Cafe in your area by searching the Death Cafe website: www.DeathCafe.com
If there is no face-to-face Death Cafe in your area consider calling in by telephone to the Virtual Death Cafe, which generally meets on the 2nd Sunday of each month. Learn more at www.eoluniversity.com/death-cafe
Start your own Death Cafe. If you feel inclined to become a Death Cafe host (no specific training is required) you might want to start your own and truly benefit your community. Get completes Guidelines for starting a Death Cafe at www.DeathCafe.com/how
Use Social Media sites to get connected with others:
- On Facebook search for these pages or public groups (then “Like” the page or ask to become a member of the group): Slow Medicine, Afterlife Awareness, Death Cafe, Death Midwifery in Canada, End-of-Life University, Death Expo
- Linked-In: search for groups based on interests such as Hospice, Palliative Care, Chaplain Services, Grief, End-of-Life
- Twitter: follow hashtags like #EOL #hpm #eolchat #dwd #eolcare #funeralplanning #deathcafe #hospice (depending on your interests)
Start a death and dying Meetup Group. You can create your own curriculum for a meetup (unlike Death Cafe that has no agenda) and include films, speakers, panel discussions, field trips. Go to www.Meetup.com to see if there is already a meetup in your area or to start one of your own.
Teach a class in your community. Consider teaching a death and dying class at a local community college if you have the credentials for it, or offer a class at your local senior or community center. Read this blog for some tips for teaching such a course HERE.
Join an organization. I highly recommend that you look into joining the National Home Funeral Alliance, which offers free registration, monthly conference calls and an annual face-to-face conference. You don’t have to be a home funeral guide to join and you will find many, many like-minded people there! Learn more about the NHFA at www.homefuneralalliance.org
Listen to educational interviews like this podcast or the interviews on the End-of-Life University Seminar Series. Click HERE to subscribe to the podcast and HERE to sign up for the seminar series.