Training FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the role and scope of practice of a Death Doula?
A: The role of a death doula, also known as an end-of-life doula or death midwife, is to provide emotional, practical, and informational support to individuals who are nearing the end of their lives and their families. While the specific scope of practice can vary depending on local laws and regulations, as well as on an individual practitioner’s training and certifications, some common aspects of a death doula's role are:
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Providing Emotional Support: Death doulas offer companionship and emotional guidance to the dying person and their loved ones. They create a safe space for open and honest conversations about death, fears, and concerns. They may provide active listening, validation, and comfort to ease emotional distress.
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Helping with Planning and Preparation: Death doulas assist in planning for end-of-life preferences, such as advance care directives, living wills, and do-not-resuscitate orders. They may help individuals explore their values and wishes, facilitate discussions with healthcare providers and family members, and support decision-making processes.
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Doing Education and Advocacy: Death doulas provide information about the dying process, including physical, emotional, and spiritual changes that may occur. They may help individuals and families understand medical jargon, treatment options, and available resources. Doulas often act as advocates for the person's wishes, ensuring their choices are respected and communicated effectively.
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Offering Comfort: Death doulas focus on enhancing the quality of life during the dying process. They may provide comfort measures such as massage, guided imagery, relaxation techniques, and help manage pain and symptom control. They can offer suggestions for creating a soothing environment and may collaborate with healthcare professionals to ensure holistic care.
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Assisting with Rituals and Legacy Work: Death doulas may support individuals in creating meaningful rituals, ceremonies, or legacy projects that reflect their values, beliefs, and personal narratives. They can assist in preserving memories, facilitating conversations, and encouraging life reviews or the recording of personal stories.
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Supporting in Grief and Bereavement: Following the death of a loved one, death doulas may continue to provide bereavement support to family members. This can include facilitating grief support groups, offering individual counseling, or connecting individuals with appropriate resources.
Q: Why would someone choose to become a Death Doula?
A: There are many different reasons why someone decides to train as a Death Doula, and is often as individual as each of our own journeys with life and death. For some people, it's because they're already working in deathcare, healthcare, or social justice and wish to grow their experience and ability to end the suffering that those who are dying (and those who love them) experience. Another common reason for taking this path is because someone has witnessed what they would consider a "non-dignified" death, and in honour of their loved one they seek to give comfort and dignity to others.
Q: Why did Home Hospice Association create its own Death Doula Training Program?
A: After trying to bring an American training to Canada, we realized that the future of the Death Doula movement in this country and the role Death Doulas play in Home Hospice Association needed to be our number one priority. And so we created our own trainings and certificate program that allowed us to proudly stand behind and support our graduates.
Q: How long does the Death Doula Certificate Program take to complete?
A: Death Doula Candidates working towards their certification officially have one year to complete our program, and people typically finish within 3-6 months. However, some Candidates take longer depending on their personal circumstances, learning styles, and study goals. If you can’t finish within a year, we offer extension possibilities that you can discuss with your Candidate Advisor.
Q: Is your Death Doula training fully remote?
A: Yes, all of our training programs are fully remote/online. For our Death Doula and Infant & Pregnancy Loss Support Certificate Programs, the self-study components can be completed at your own pace, and the live-online weekend session involves scheduled class times on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of your selected weekend cohort. Our Death Doula training programs also offer optional quarterly in-person hangouts in select regions.
Q: How much do the Death Doula Certificate Program and the Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doula Certificate Program cost?
A: Our Certificate Programs cost $700.00 (inclusive). As a nonprofit Registered Canadian Charity, we rely on the fees collected from our professional development programs to fund our organization's core operations and programs, meaning that every cent of your tuition goes back into promoting accessible compassionate end-of-life care and to increasing public awareness of the important role of death doulas in palliative settings. We do have a scholarship program for our Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doula Certificate Program that interested parties may apply for. Please email info@homehospiceassociation.com if you would like more information about our this scholarship or, if you're able, please consider donating to our scholarship fund.
Q: Is there a difference between a Death Doula and an End of Life Doula?
A: There is no difference between a "Death Doula" and an "End of Life Doula". Other names that are also sometimes used are "Vigil Doulas", "Death Midwives", and "Thanadoulas". We call our graduates Death Doulas because normalizing dying and death is a key value in our charitable mission and the first way to meet this mission is to use plain language.
Q: I don’t live in the Eastern Time Zone. Is it still possible to take HHA’s Certificate Programs?
If you don’t live in the Eastern Time Zone, it’s still possible to train with us as all of our Professional Development Training Programs, including our Death Doula Certificate Program, are fully remote/online. However, for the live-online classes, you’ll probably want to consider the time difference before you register.
For our Death Doula and Infant & Pregnancy Loss Support programs, in-class sessions take place on Friday: 6pm-9pm, Saturday: 9am-5pm, Sunday: 9am-5pm – all live-online during Eastern Time. The rest of the program can be completed asynchronously.
Q: What is the difference between a Death Doula and an Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doula (IPLD)?
A: The only difference between a Death Doula and an Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doula is the age of client that the doula is specifically trained to support. Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doulas are trained to support people with the loss of a pregnancy or a baby aged 1 year or less. Death Doulas may take over when someone has reached one year of age or beyond. That said, both professionals are qualified to care for children between the ages of one and two.
Q: Is your Death Doula Certificate Program more than just a weekend training?
A: Yes! The weekend training session is only ONE PART of our Death Doula Certificate Program. There are three other components of the training that must be completed in order to certify. These include various online modules, assignments, and case studies that can be completed at your own pace. Once registered, you can begin with the first asynchronous program components. We highly recommend starting to work through some of these self-study materials prior to attending the weekend session, since having some knowledge going into the weekend will only enhance your experience and capacity for engagement.
In addition to the four mandatory program components, all HHA Candidates and graduates are invited to attend our monthly learning events; these include Guest Speaker Nights, "What Would You Do" Nights, Case Study Nights, and both virtual and in-person HHAngouts.
Q: I want to train as a Death Doula - should I pay my full tuition fee now, even though my selected weekend session is still several months away? What are the benefits to joining the program before my selected weekend?
A: We can't stress this enough: our Death Doula Certificate Program is so much more than just the weekend training! Once you've paid your tuition fee in full, you can immediately begin the program, even if your weekend cohort doesn't start for several months.
We highly recommend completing some of the required self-study course components of the program - such as assignments, case studies, and online modules - prior to attending the weekend session, since having some knowledge going into the weekend will only enhance your experience and capacity for engagement.
According to previous course participants, one of the biggest benefits of beginning the course as soon as possible is being able to take advantage of the various live-online learning sessions offered every month with special guest speakers and educators, as well as the in-person hangouts. There are so many amazing opportunities to learn and engage outside of the weekend session that you won't want to miss!
Q: Is MAiD a core component of HHA's Death Doula Certification Program?
A: No, MAiD isn’t a core component of our Death Doula Certificate Program. However, we think it’s important that our program graduates have at least a basic understanding about the provision (legalities, etc.) That said, we also realize that this is a controversial subject that not all Death Doulas will want to incorporate into their practice. For this reason, we cover MAiD during a designated 1-hour session on the Sunday of the learning weekend, and - for those who wish to work with MAiD clients - we offer a specialized/extended training called “MAiD and the Death Doula”.
Q: Do Death Doula Certificate Program participants need to purchase textbooks or are all course materials included in the course fee?
A: We don’t use textbooks for our Death Doula Certificate Programs. Participants receive a PDF manual with select course readings, and are required to purchase 2 books that will be referenced throughout the program.
Q: Why would a PSW want to also have HHA's Death Doula Certification?
A: The question really should be, why wouldn’t a PSW want to also have the Death Doula Certification! Personal Support Workers are already trained and practicing practical and physical care for their clients/patients along an entire illness journey. To have the expertise to also provide the emotional and spiritual care for their clients at end of life would make a PSW who is interested in palliative care a top candidate for any agency or organization.
Q: Where do Home Hospice Association Death Doulas practice - only in Ontario/Canada?
A: HHA has trained Death Doulas who went on to practice all over Canada. Before we offered virtual online trainings, we even trained a family doctor from Mexico who traveled to Canada to complete the Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doula program. While a few content points in the curriculum are specific to a Canadian or Ontarian context (e.g. MAiD laws in Canada or legalities of funeral practices in Ontario), most of the topics covered are transferable across geographical contexts.
Q: How much does a Death Doula or End of Life Doula make in Canada?
A: Because most Doulas create a professional practice or add to their current scope of practice as an alternative/integrative practitioner, they set their own fee structure. Home Hospice Association, through the building of partnerships with traditional palliative care and social justice agencies, is working to have HHA-certified Death Doulas included (and paid) as part of the interdisciplinary care team serving the community needs of our dying. When an HHA Death Doula or Infant & Pregnancy Loss Doula is works with a client of HHA’s or one of our community partners, an honorarium is set and paid for through our fundraising efforts.
Q: Do you offer volunteer caregiving roles for non-HHA-trained Death Doulas?
A: The way our charity work is structured, we don’t actually offer volunteer caregiving roles for Death Doulas. Instead, we mobilize Doulas who are in training with us as part of their practicum experience, as well as certified HHA Death Doulas (in both paid and pro-bono working capacities) whose depth of knowledge/training we can fully attest to. Of course, we recognize the importance of building the capacities of - and opportunities for - Death Doulas regardless of where they originally trained. It’s a delicate balance of growing the Death Doula movement and making sure we can stand behind the skills and training of the practitioners we work with.
We welcome non-HHA-trained Doulas to join our HHA Death Doula Family by continuing their education through HHA, while benefiting from the supports we can provide in both a training and professional development capacity. The 3 opportunities we currently offer, which would complement existing Death Doula knowledge and skills are: MAiD and the Death Doula, Infant & Pregnancy Loss Support Certificate Program, and Death Doula Progressive Learning Program.
For non-HHA-trained Death Doulas who are not interested in further training but still want to volunteer with HHA, we have lots of volunteer opportunities that don’t involve frontline care. For example, we're looking for volunteer members for our Prison & Houseless Hospice Pilot Working Teams. We’re also always looking for volunteers to help with our annual Moonlit Memory Walk fundraiser.
If we haven't answered your question, please reach out to us at info@homehospiceassociation.com.