End-of-life doulas offer non-medical supports, guidance, and comfort for people with advancing serious illness, including those close to them. They have been gaining a lot of attention from the public, media, and health care systems as our previous ideas and traditions of care for dying, death, and bereavement continue to shift within the 21st century.… Continue reading →
The first half of this blog was written by Simon Dewhurst, who works in the facilities team at the School of Social and Environmental Sustainability. The second half is written by Dr Marian Krawczyk, Lecturer and programme lead for the End of Life Studies PGCert/PGDip/MSc. The genesis of the blog was a serendipitous conversation between… Continue reading →
“Total pain” is the term used within hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care to describe pain which is complex and overwhelming, and which encompasses physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions. It is an attempt to encapsulate experiences of suffering that are unique to advancing life-limiting illness, the end of life, and dying. The term was first… Continue reading →
The recent Lancet Commission into the Value of Death reports endemic suffering at the end of life in both global North and South countries and calls for the further expansion of holistic philosophies and practices of end of life care. Here at the End of Life Studies Group, we believe that one way to do… Continue reading →
Several years ago, I started hearing about a new kind of community-based care role. Some called themselves ‘end-of-life doula’; others identified themselves as a ‘death doula’ or a ‘death midwife’. These terms describe people (primarily women) who provide a wide range of social, emotional, practical, and spiritual supports for people nearing the end of life,… Continue reading →
The world stopped making sense when my sister died. She wasn’t supposed to die young, with a small child, most of her life still to be lived – it was an unprecedented event. In order to try and find meaning to my inchoate grief, I began to explore others’ stories and experiences with dying and… Continue reading →
“Death is terrifying”, writes the author Susan Cheever, “…because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time”. Continue reading →
A new approach to suffering in life-limiting illness: Total pain, the brain-gut axis, and the human microbiome. Dr Marian Krawczyk talks about her new Carnegie Research Incentive Grant: This grant enables her to conduct a targeted review of literature across social, medical, and biological research to develop an innovative transdisciplinary theory that considers the connection… Continue reading →
