Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) The Role of the End of Life MAiD Doula

Here are some bios from a few of our several panelists:

Lori Goldwyn started out as a birth doula and childbirth educator in 1988, and transitioned into Hospice and Palliative Care as a volunteer in 2013. After taking an EOL (End of Life) Doula training in 2016 she developed her own practice. Since 2018 Lori specializes in assisting those who choose the CA End of Life Option Act and supports their families through the process. She learned and collaborated with Dr. Lonny Shavelson & Thalia DeWolf, RN, founders of ACAMAiD (American Clinicians Academy for Medical Aid in Dying). She offers consultation, education and mentoring to other doulas/bedside attendants who are working with MAiD clients. Lori has a M.S. degree in Education/Speech and Language Pathology, is a founding member of the Bay Area End of Life Doula Alliance and lives in the East Bay Area.

Linda Suhr is an end-of-life doula whose guiding principle is to listen to and meet clients wherever they are on their end-of-life journey. Many of her clients are relatively healthy and are pro-actively seeking to put their affairs in order. She supports these clients as they deeply reflect on essential end-of-life considerations, gather important documents and organize them all in a cohesive way so that their loved ones will be able to honor their wishes when the time comes. Linda also holistically supports those who are actively dying, along with their caregivers, in the medley of care needed at the end of life.

Linda founded Autumn of Life Planning in 2021 and is a founding member of Sonoma County End of Life Doula Alliance

Sarah Hill, East Bay Doula for the Dying

As an end-of-life doula, Sarah provides support to those who are dying, and their constellation of caregivers. She approaches her work from an emotionally engaged and intuitively aware place, while also tending to the pragmatic essentials needed at the end of life. Sarah’s path to becoming a doula began in early childhood, but she resisted its pull until her forties. At the height of her consulting career supporting large-scale change management efforts in the corporate sector, the call to pivot to what is arguably the greatest change we each will undergo had become too loud to ignore. Sarah is humbled each day by those she encounters in her work and often marvels atthe expansiveness of the human heart. Taking the path less traveledhas helped her round out her own edges, too: exchanging achievement for fulfillment is among the best decisions of her life.

Sarah began her private practice, East Bay Doula for the Dying, LLCin 2019, and is a founding member of the Bay Area End of Life Doula Alliance (ELDA).

This is a free event brought to you by Final Passages, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. We invite you to consider a gift to Final Passages when you register for this event - all donations are tax deductible. Please remember to also register under general admission to ensure you receive the zoom link for this event.

Contributions are directed to provide scholarships for our training programs, for reproducing and developing educational materials, publication of our book about home and family-directed funerals, and other community and national outreach programs, including this monthly online series.

Started in 1995, Final Passages was the nation’s first non-profit, educational institute and resource center dedicated to conscious dying, and a holistic, green, compassionate and dignified alternative to conventional funeral and after-death practices. We are also the first nationwide organization to create a death midwifery and home funeral guidance training program.

https://finalpassages.org/