Home Hospice Association
Community Workshops & Presentations
Are you an organization or community group interested in improving access to quality compassionate end-of-life care? We’re happy to arrange a presentation or workshop (online or, if possible, in-person) on any of the topics below, and can even tailor sessions to the interests and needs of your group.
How to Talk with Kids about Dying, Death & Grief
Discussing death with children and young adults can be challenging and many tend to avoid the conversations altogether. But death, just like birth, is a natural part of our lives. As parents, guardians, and caregivers, it is our responsibility to ensure young people know it’s okay to talk about dying and death, and to learn healthy ways of coping with grief.
By becoming more educated around these topics, we can build our capacity to support young people before and when death occurs. In this 2-hour workshop for adults, we explore different developmental stages and various strategies and techniques for how to both listen and talk with young people about dying, death and grief.
Are these appropriate conversations for young people? Absolutely! In fact, their mental health might depend on it.
Death Doulas & the Caregiving Role
We often get asked what a Death Doula “actually” does. As the awareness of Death Doulas grows, and as the vital contributions of these caregivers is increasingly recognized within palliative care communities, it’s important that the role of a Death Doula in supporting the dying and their loved ones is properly understood. This presentation provides answers to frequently asked questions about Death Doulas, including:
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How necessary is it to have a Death Doula on an already robust palliative care team?
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Who are a Death Doula’s clients and why?
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When does a Death Doula typically join a caregiving team, and when is the ideal time for them to join?
We explain how Death Doulas can contribute to professional, volunteer and familial teams helping someone die well, using concrete examples gained from our years of experience training and working with Death Doulas, as well as mobilizing Death Doula care in order to increase access to compassionate end-of-life support across Canada.
Talking MAiD: Normalizing Conversation about Medically Assisted Dying
This presentation/workshop is offered as a part of our Diana Pathway program, which was inspired by Diana, the first client HHA supported when seeking MAiD.
We aim to create a safe environment for professionals, students in human rights and social justice studies, or members of a social group to navigate the myriad perceptions about MAiD and to understand the history and facts of this provision in Canada. We dispel myths, such as “I am legally obligated to attend a MAiD Death” and answer questions, such as “Would my life insurance be affected if I were to have MAiD?”, with the ultimate goal of normalizing conversation on this topic.
Talking About Death Won’t Kill You
If talking about something resulted in that thing actually happening, then we would all be talking about winning the lottery! The fact is, talking about death won’t kill you just like talking about winning the lottery won’t get you any closer to cashing in those millions.
In this interactive and engaging presentation, we discuss how facing our mortality is an important step in living a full and happy life, and how preparing for death and developing a level of comfort with talking about dying can help all of us, including our families and our communities.
Throughout the presentation, you’ll discover why Home Hospice Association places so much importance on the need to normalize death and learn the unique ways that our organization approaches working with people who are facing death.
When Labour Leads to Loss: A Workshop for Funeral Professionals
This workshop is designed to train funeral professionals in the area of infant & pregnancy loss so that they are able to confidently help individuals and families who are experiencing these devastating losses. In the workshop, participants will:
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Have the opportunity to acknowledge the significance and impact that infant & pregnancy loss has on the people and families they serve as well as on themselves as professionals providing support
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Learn to effectively navigate complicated feelings of grief and triggering events, with the goal of minimizing the trauma that everyone involved may experience and to promote healthy grieving processes
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Gain practical tools and considerations for making funeral arrangements, receiving the infant into their care, and honouring and memorializing
HHA Death Cafe
Would you like to host a Death Café for the members of your organization? Our Death Cafés build on the international social movement of Death Cafés that emerged in the UK in 2010. Leading the national community in the facilitation of Death Cafés, HHA is committed to this important community outreach.
By hosting a Death Café at your organization, you’re creating a space in which members of your organization or community can talk about and explore their feelings around dying and death, and how these topics impact them in their lives. Bringing people together in this way can also help extend this dialogue to friends, families, and wider communities.
We are happy to facilitate a general Death Café for your organization, or if you operate within a specific community, we can also bring one of our community-specific Death Cafés to your group. Learn more about these on our Death Café page.
As a nonprofit Registered Canadian Charity with a mission to make compassionate end-of-life care and comprehensive death education accessible to all, we offer our community workshops and presentations at no cost.
We are incredibly grateful for donations however big or small, and are always looking for fundraising partners to help us spread awareness of our work and raise the funds we need to be able to offer free and fully accessible services and programming.
Upcoming Events
We offer regular workshops, presentations, death cafes and other events both online and out in the community. Check our events page to see what’s happening!