Lori Zaspel, a clinical social worker serving the greater Philadelphia area who specializes in grief, medical social work, and end of life issues, and a co-founder of the Philly Death Doula Collective, gave a 50 minute presentation at the Working Group on Aging Concerns meeting on October 5th.
From the Philly Death Doula Collective website: Death doulas, also called end-of-life doulas, death companions, or death midwives, are non-medical support people for a dying individual and their caregivers (be they loved ones, family, chosen family, or others). Lori provided a clear explanation of what a death doula does leaving us with an understanding of this deeply compassionate process that seeks to help people over that difficult transition we will all face.
We recorded this Zoom session of the October meeting of the WGAC and you can view that presentation here at our Concord Quarter YouTube site: https://youtu.be/aeCqo8Ava0E
A recent segment on NPR highlighted the role of death doulas in end of life experiences: