03/01/2024
As an end-of-life doula and educator, I often get calls from people way too late. They’ve sat with a terminal diagnosis for weeks or months, almost paralyzed with fear or anxiety, and have no idea what to do next.
This is especially frustrating because an agonizing death is avoidable.
What kind of suffering do my clients needlessly endure? It is typically physical, emotional or spiritual pain. And it’s my job to help them understand their options to reduce that suffering.
I explain the benefits of contacting hospice sooner rather than later. If contacted early enough, medical and palliative care teams help manage symptoms and keep dying people comfortable. For emotional or spiritual concerns, my clients and I discuss checklists for the dying, utilizing peer support, licensed mental health counseling and chaplaincy services.
Sometimes my clients choose meditation or breathwork to reduce their fears.
But what about clients who aren’t inclined to meditate or those who might benefit from therapy but are running out of time?
What about clients in physical distress, for whom medication doesn’t work? Or those in existential distress, for whom traditional pharmacological interventions don’t work?
In these cases, I watch helplessly as they wait and suffer, knowing they will be denied the comfort of a more peaceful death.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can ease suffering and provide relief during this sacred time with other options. Two bills recently filed in Illinois can help.
Read more from my latest op-ed up at the Chicago Sun-Times:
The "medical aid in dying" measure would give mentally capable patients who are terminally ill an option of ending their own lives, an end-of-life doula and educator writes. Another bill would allow the use of psilocybin, which research shows can reduce end-of-life distress.
