Deathcare: End of Life Care, Compassion, and Holistic Support

Death is one of the greatest taboos and understandably difficult subjects to discuss in our modern world. Like birth, death is a prerequisite for life and yet our culture of death denial prevents us from communally providing the care, compassion and holistic support we all deserve at the end of life. In this talk by a death doula and applied anthropologist, participants learn the ways in which basic death education can empower families and communities to remove the barriers to equity and agency at the end of life – particularly for historically marginalized communities that are often not afforded these rights while living. This presentation covers the importance of accessibility to deathcare, debunks common myths about community death work and shares how presence versus avoidance can bring more healing and humanity back to the death process (and life lived).