for starters, I’m not even sure THIS can be a job, and I have absolutely NO idea how to make it one if it can.
I want to help people die. Not in the Jack K way, but as in setting up the environment etc etc for the terminally ill. I want to help people customize their death, help them die at home, or how they wish.
Important to note, I do NOT want to be a nurse. I have no desire to give out meds etc etc, however I have absolutely no objections to general care taking - but I would like to do more than be a home care worker.
We all have to die. And in this day and age where seniors are a fast growing part of the population, and hospitals are overcrowded… I’m sure there will be a demand for more and more people to die HOW they want, WHERE they want.
I would very much like to help palliative care patients achieve this. How can I do this, what skills will I need?
Personally, I would shoot for the “Aging Adventurer” nitch. People who want to go out with a bang. (no, not that way)
There are many people who want to die at home, in their beds. But there are also quite a few who would love to go out doing something they have always wanted to do, or have always loved doing.
Examples:
Skydiving (poorly made parachutes. would have to be careful of zoning).
Sailing (little boat, wait for storm, point em in the right direction)
Driving (fast car, salt flats, abrubt mountain range)
Camping (is it hard to train bears?)
This may seem absurd to some, but I am dead serious. Not only would you allow people to go out with one heck of a grin on their face, you would get some fantastic free press.
I think your greatest obstacle regardless of how you form your business will be legal. Make sure to incorporate yourself for protection against angry heirs.
If this is a serious question, Mith, the serious answer would be that you want to get involved in hospice care. I would imagine that you would need some sort of counseling background. The hospice person who worked with my bf’s mother and family was an ordained minister, but I don’t know what kind of specific training she had in addition.
I really truly want to help terminally ill people die at home, or where/how they wish.
It’s something I feel really passionately about. The thought of someone passing away all alone as they lay in some lonely, bland hospital room really disturbs me. How wonderful would it be to pass with your favorite music playing, around your favorite flowers, with someone holding your hand… in your own bed.
People have recently relaized just how impersonal and mechanical hospital births were. Now midwives and homebirths are more common. I would like to prusue this kinda change and new philosphy only with death, not birth.
thanks.
As I said, my bf’s mother had a hospice worker who came in and helped both his mother and the rest of his family (his two sisters) come to terms with what was going on. His mother was able to die peacefully in her own home.
God bless you for wanting to get into this work – it seems very important but very difficult.
I think its a wonderful thing that you care so much about helping people pass in the most comfortable way possible.
Don’t be surprised if you get requests like this if though if you market yourself as helping them die where/how they wish. I honestly can think of nothing worse than slipping away into oblivion, regardless how comfortable the surroundings are.
I suggest taking a poll. Ask a hundred people where and how they wish to die. I’m sure at home, in bed will be the number one answer, but I’m willing to wager many people have different ideas.
This sort of service is common in Australia (well NSW at least ) and is provided by Community Health Teams within Area Health Services. The person primarily in charge of these things is usually a Clinical Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care. They coordinate all the services for the dying client and provide support and education to the family to permit the client to die at home. Apparently most patients who don’t require hospitalisation prefer to die at home. Some of these palliative care services make use of volunteer groups to assist where possible. Exactly what you would like to do that is more than a home care worker but not clinical care?