A reflection space for death care workers with Amy Firth & The Visible Death Worker Community This 90 minute virtual call is for death care practitioners and grief workers supporting, or looking to support, families eligible for the assisted dying process. 10am - 11:30am // Weds 9th September (AEST) REGISTER HERE: https://events.humanitix.com/holding-families-through-assisted-dying **NB: Please note this is not an information session for families seeking Voluntary Assisted Dying. This is a closed event for death care professionals looking to share and learn from each other, from both a professional and cultural perspective. ABOUT THE WEBINAR: Known here in Australia as Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD), this practice goes by different names depending on where you're working from. Canada calls it MAID, Medical Assistance in Dying. In the US it's most often Medical Aid in Dying. New Zealand uses Assisted Dying. The Netherlands, Belgium and much of Europe still use the word euthanasia. Whatever the name where you are, the territory we're gathering to talk about is the same. VAD is relatively new here in Australia (available to families in my state of NSW since 2023) and many of us are still learning, still finding our footing in how we support and prepare families and accompany families in our death care role. Not so much with the practicalities of the process itself, but with everything that sits around it. The parts nobody hands you a manual for. This webinar presents an opportunity to hear from each other about the tender role we play when supporting these families, and what we can learn from each other in what we collectively witness in this particular strand of our work. Together we'll explore: - The Space Between Yes and Goodbye, supporting families who are counting down the nights - Continuity of care, from before, to death, to funeral, and beyond - VAD grief presenting as sudden death bereavement

This week's prompt isn't about your clients. It's about you. What's sitting in your own death admin pile? Maybe it's the will you've been meaning to update. The Advance Care Directive that's still only half finished. The conversation you've been meaning to have with your family. The funeral wishes you've helped other people think about… but haven't quite written down for yourself. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. How constantly looking “out there” for ideas can become an endless hustle - when actually if we pause and find the time to harvest from what we already have done (or haven’t done) - it can be a treasure trove of ideas that demands less from us energetically. e.g. I recently recorded a podcast episode for ‘Play This At My Funeral’ & the conversation resulted in me talking through planning my own funeral ceremony, moment by moment, song by song - and it gifted me a new perspective, an embodied perspective - of how I truly want my funeral to feel for the people I leave behind. This dovetailed effortlessly into an existing content pillar for me around helping people approach funerals not a formality they have to get through, but a creative act of love they get to create. One last generous gesture. (Here's the short clip I've chosen to share on socials.) That shift, from funeral as "burden" to funeral as "gift", has opened up a whole new way for me to talk about this work. And I only truly arrived there because I did my own admin first. Harvested from within from my own wants and wishes. And that's just funerals. As we know, there's so much more across the entire end of life / death / dying / ceremony / grief / remembrance spectrum. The Dead Good sisters - @Katy Vigurs + @Lindsey Vigurs - put this into practice beautifully in a reel recently - really naming all that they want for their moments following death. It’s poignant and visceral and beautiful - (as is everything they do!) It's on Instagram here.

Hey! I took part in my first Death Café last Saturday and I loved it. One of the things that I noticed was that, besides the 2 facilitators who were palliative care nurses, I, a celebrant, was there, and there was also someone making beautiful wooden sculptures for graves and a couple of singers for ceremonies.. This observation seemed to show that we need a place to meet as a network and become more visible together! So, as I have some capacity and experience for that, I am taking the first steps to get it started with the 2 palliative care nurses. We imagined that having a common website that gathers all actors in the ecosystem of death in our city would be a good start, and then meeting up and hopefully having collaborations etc. This would include the traditional actors such as funeral directors, palliative care, priests, but also death doulas, celebrants etc. Do any of you have such a webpage and/or network in your area? Would you share your experience and the website if there is such a thing? Regarding the name, we were joking with "The Death Portal" but it might be a bit too much for a start.. :) Any experience or tip is welcome! Thanks! Johanna

Wow! Just reading about this and really want to go. Timing this year isn’t good for me. But sharing as I know the UK people here may be interested. Worth Travelling for too I reckon. Although Aus / Canada may be a bit far! https://www.thesonderingfestival.co.uk/

Do you know the Bengsons? An amazing soulful couple that created a grief musical called My Joy is Heavy.. Unfortunately unable to attend it as it took place in the US, but feeling so profoundly moved and joyful when listening to the theme song, I am sharing it with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzhziV_b1lc It captured something that resonates deep for me, that when we do give space to our grief, we open up to the whole of our aliveness, and we don't need to choose either one of them, they can and need to coexist in our open broken hearts...