Death, Dying & Bereavement Training
Fin offers bespoke training, workshops, and support groups to care providers. Through our work, we see how supporting health and social care staff to explore their own relationship with and attitudes towards death and dying can have profound benefits for themselves, their colleagues, and crucially for those they care for in their role. Founded by Katie-Rose Whiting (End of Life Doula specialising in guided meditation and visualisation for therapeutic change) and
Dr Emma Clare (PhD in death competency development in healthcare professionals and Chartered Psychologist).
Care providers will be familiar with the latest CQC regulations and new quality statement ‘Planning for the Future’ which set out ways in which care providers must meet ‘we statements’ around end of life care including:
‘We support people to plan for important life changes, so they can have enough time to make informed decisions about their future, including at the end of their life.’
This quality statement means that care staff must be able to:
• Support people to engage in advance planning whilst they have the capacity to do so
• Identify when a person they are supporting is approaching the end of their life
• Understand and be able to discuss and communicate decisions around withdrawing treatment
• Work together with the person if they wish to receive fewer care interventions at the end of life
• Support the person to express their wishes regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
NICE guidelines also state that professionals providing general palliative care should:
• Be involved as early as possible after diagnosis
• Aim to meet the needs of the person and their family or carers within the limits of their
knowledge and competence
• Seek specialist advice or refer the person to specialist services where necessary
Based on our extensive knowledge of end of life care and supporting professionals to develop their death competency (skills and capabilities in dealing with death), our 1-day workshop covers the following topics:
Talking about death and dying – why and how
Death competency
Our own relationship with death
How to recognise death and dying, how to prepare ourselves and those we are supporting
Relevant legislation around death in care
Expected and unexpected death
How to recognise expected death – expected death not as a medical emergency
Signs of an ‘ordinary’ dying process – recognising these and communicating what to expect to those we care for and those important to them, knowing who to contact to ensure the person’s care needs are met
Advance planning
Basics – what is a DNACPR, ADRT and Advance Statement, when are each of these appropriate, which are legally binding and what documentation looks like in your area
Mental Capacity
Starting and having the advance planning conversation
Supporting families with bereavement and grief - anticipatory grief
Care provider as extended family - coping with disenfranchised grief - ourselves and colleagues
Ending and honouring relationships – the person we cared for and our relationships with those important to them
Revisiting death competency – this training as just the beginning, how to continue our own development and support each other to do the same
“Our employees are working with some of the most vulnerable people within the community, planning for and supporting people with death and dying is such an integral part of the work that they do. Ensuring our employees have the tools to do this well is integral to delivering outstanding care. Fin offers an interactive way to empower teams to help those that they support to plan for the future. This not only has a personal impact for those that they support but when effectively put into practice meets the CQC quality statements on planning for the future. We have found whatever the gap in our teams knowledge Fin has the skills and ability to help us to fill it. ”
