Tag: suffering at end of life

EOLPodcast

Ep. 558 Filling the Gaps in End-of-Life Education, Support, and Community with Suzanne B. O’Brien RN

kwyattmd

Learn about the need for more education around death, dying, and grief to help us create more compassionate communities that are better prepared for the end of life.

About the guest:

My return guest Suzanne O’Brien is the founder and CEO of Doulagivers Institute and a pioneer in the global Death Doula movement. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her contribution to end-of-life care around the world and the author of the book The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved Ones Through the End of Life. She discusses why this moment is right for expanding community education and awareness about end-of-life issues and how learning about death can help us fully live. In addition she describes her upcoming free webinar on “Death Doula Secrets” to mentor doulas on Suzanne’s framework for successful death doula business development. Learn more at her website:

doulagivers.com

Register for Death Doula Secrets Webinar:

August 5th August 13th

Get the book here.

Watch on YouTube

Listen here:

In this episode:

  • The evolution of end-of-life care and education over the past 15 years
  • How COVID 19 awakened many people to the reality of mortality and exposed gaps in care
  • Families are still largely overwhelmed and uneducated about providing care for their loved ones at end of life
  • How political and healthcare decision-makers remain poorly informed about end of life issues
  • Suzanne’s experience of community death care while traveling in Zimbabwe many years ago and how it informed her current work
  • Why broader cultural change around death and dying requires mass education in our communities
  • We need to help people with their fear of death through education if we want to see more change
  • Options for the management of suffering at the end of life, including terminal sedation, are not fully understood by most people
  • Death is the greatest teacher about how to live
  • The importance of gratitude and presence for bringing meaning to life

Links mentioned in this episode:

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Transcript:

Suzanne O’Brien InterviewDownload
EOLPodcast

Ep. 548 Choice at the End of Life: A Bioethics Conversation on MAID with Jeffrey Kahn PhD in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

kwyattmd

Learn about facts and misconceptions around medical aid in dying and the ethical tensions that exist in medicine and society.

Image of Jeffrey Kahn, a bioethics expert, alongside text promoting a podcast episode titled 'Choice at the End of Life' discussing medical assistance in dying (MAID).

My guest Professor Jeffrey Kahn is a bioethicist, researcher, author, and Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. The institute’s award-winning podcast, playing god? explores ethics dilemmas that arise in medicine, science, law, and health policy. Today we discuss with Dr. Kahn the most recent episode of playing god?: I Need you to Help Me Die – an exploration of Medical Aid in Dying through first-person storytelling and expert analysis. This episode includes a clip from I Need You to Help Me Die and listeners are invited to listen to the full episode at the following link:

https://playing-god.transistor.fm/s2/1

Watch on YouTube

Listen here:

This episode includes:

  • Why the Berman Institute chose to address medical aid in dying in their latest episode
  • The story of journalist Esmé Deprez and her father’s choice to use MAID
  • Why medical aid in dying is not the same as suicide
  • The difference between medically-assisted dying and euthanasia
  • The protections built into MAID laws that can also become obstacles
  • Ethical dilemma’s for healthcare providers
  • Why improved access to MAID is needed in states where it is legal

Links mentioned in this episode:

Jeffrey Kahn InterviewDownload