To talk about championing health, we first need to be clear on what health really is. The World Health Organization defines health as a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.
Health is not just blood pressure, medication charts, or ward rounds. A person is not defined by diagnosis, age, or stage of illness.
Health is whether someone feels heard, whether their choices are honoured, whether they feel safe, seen and connected, and whether their final weeks are marked by care rather than treatment regimes, loneliness or isolation.
Ignoring these other holistic facets of health may not present as clinical issues; however, they definitely carry clinical consequences.
At Preparing the Way, this is the holistic lens we bring to health. It includes physical wellbeing, and also emotional, social, mental, cultural, relational and spiritual wellbeing.
And yes, it includes what happens before, at end of life, and after.
Death might seem like the end, but really, it is one breath out that is not followed by another breath in. In the lead-up to that final breath, there is so much life, and there is so much life to be considered after death, too.
The gap we exist to fill
At Preparing the Way and in the doulaverse, we are changing the conversation and the experience around end of life care in Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
We started this work to fill the gaps in overstretched care systems, including in rural and regional Australia where consistent, compassionate support can be patchy. Unfortunately good, inclusive palliative care is often a postcode lottery, not because people do not care, but because we have not built the skills, structures, or permission to care in a different way.
What an end of life doula brings
We train people to support their people, and we train end of life doulas. It is a non-medical, non-clinical role that provides support, education and resourcing for people advancing in age, living with a diagnosis, approaching end of life, and for those who support them.
This is holistic care: emotional, practical, spiritual, relational, cultural and mental support, with presence and steadiness in moments that can feel chaotic, scary, or overwhelming.
Doulas do not replace health professionals; we complement them and work alongside them. Many GPs, nurses and aged care providers refer to our graduates because they have seen the difference first hand.
Continuity of care across the whole journey
Our training unfolds inside a 10-stage model of life, created by Natural Grace Holistic Funeral Care.
It spans living well and planning, diagnosis and illness, living with life limiting illness, palliative care, active dying, death, after death care and ceremony, funeral or memorial, the body returned to the elements, and bereavement and care for the living.
An end of life doula is the only professional role that can provide true continuity of care across all these stages. Other medical, nursing, and allied health teams enter and leave at different points, which means families are constantly navigating new relationships, information, processes, and choices.
Think about it. There is often a diagnostic team who hand back to the referring GP, then perhaps next is a treatment team. Then, as things progress, they often leave the circle because the need for a palliative care team is forefront. The palliative care team are critical and help manage physical symptoms and anything else they can contribute, and they are there through what is called the active dying stage. And then our person dies. Palliative care, in most circumstances, leaves now. Now another new team: the funeral team.
End of life doulas can authentically accompany a person and those close to them through that entire journey, which is why we declare that end of life doulas provide ‘authentic continuity of care’.
Our clients and the people supporting them are everywhere: homes, hospitals, emergency departments, aged care, community halls, kitchen tables, and in the realities of suicide and voluntary assisted dying. End of life doulas are in all those spaces too.
Supporting the supporters
We also support the supporters.
The recent participants in two accredited units of our 10966NAT Certificate IV in End of Life Doula Services funded by Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network shared, along with Baptist Care workers, how much more confident they felt speaking with residents and families about end of life because of our training.
Catholic Care have sponsored a number of their staff to complete our Foundation Workshop then the four-unit End of Life Doula Skill Set to hold a pilot program to support their parishioners who need support at end of life. The feedback and results are extraordinary.
In partnership with Carer Gateway and LiveBetter, we have helped unpaid carers build emotional resilience, death comfortability and literacy alongside practical skills.
We are working with aged care and disability providers alongside community support providers to upskill their teams with doula education to enhance their death literacy and comfortability in the end of life space. This is critically important now that the new Support at Home Program is in place.
Naming the elephant in the room
There is a significant crisis in end of life care. Palliative care services are stretched, families are exhausted, health workers are burning out, carers can feel lost and unseen, and people can end up dying in Emergency instead of in their chosen place of care.
In addition, aged and community care workers are now being asked to be right there, at the coal face, in homes where people are dying, and many are not comfortable there.
So, we focus on what changes outcomes.
Training in compassionate presence, emotional and death literacy, and confidence, planning and support at end of life has ripple effects across the whole system and across generations.
Public health outcomes, not side effects
When someone is supported to die in peace, when carers are equipped, when families plan and share the load, and when communities step up, those are central health outcomes, not nice extras.
End of life doulas contribute to public health through early intervention, harm reduction, and health and wellbeing promotion, including encouraging self-care and carer wellbeing.
Our evaluations and feedback show gains in confidence, knowledge and emotional preparedness, reduced stress, improved mental health, better communication and stronger relationships.
“I did not just learn how to care for my dying husband. I learned how to care for myself, and our children. That changed everything.” Participant, Intensive Course 2024
This is how we champion health
Our business is built around a simple but powerful idea: death is not only a medical event, and we are not just bodies. Death is a profound personal, family, community, relational, cultural and spiritual event.
We are championing a holistic view of health that includes emotional wellbeing, spiritual care, cultural safety, community, and connection, because our health does not stop at diagnosis, or even at death.
The work ahead
We are expanding access across rural, regional and remote Australia, growing internationally, building leadership pathways for graduates, and continuing to advocate for the role of end of life doulas in aged care and community settings. We are developing further training in trauma informed care, cultural safety and grief literacy, and bringing end of life support into workplaces.
Because when we train someone to companion others through ageing, illness, end of life, death, and grief, we build a healthier society, one conversation, one family, one community at a time.