WEBINAR: HOLDING FAMILIES THROUGH ASSISTED DYING
A reflection space for death care workers
with Amy Firth & The Visible Death Worker Community

This 90 minute virtual call is for death care practitioners and grief workers supporting, or looking to support, families eligible for the assisted dying process.

NB: Please note this is not an information session for families seeking VAD. This is a closed event for death care professionals looking to share and learn from each other, from both a professional and cultural perspective.

Known here in Australia as Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD), this practice goes by different names depending on where you're working from.
Canada calls it MAID, Medical Assistance in Dying.
In the US it's most often Medical Aid in Dying.
New Zealand uses Assisted Dying.
The Netherlands, Belgium and much of Europe still use the word euthanasia.

Whatever the name where you are, the territory we're gathering to talk about is the same.

VAD is relatively new here in Australia (available to families in my state of NSW since 2023) and many of us are still learning, still finding our footing in how we support and prepare families.

Not so much with the practicalities of the process itself, but with everything that sits around it. The parts nobody hands you a manual for.

This webinar presents an opportunity to hear from each other about the tender role we play when supporting these families, and what we can learn from each other in what we collectively witness in this particular strand of our work.

Together we'll explore:

• The Space Between Yes and Goodbye, supporting families who are counting down the nights

• Continuity of care, from before, to death, to funeral, and beyond

• VAD grief presenting as sudden death bereavement

This is a free online gathering for death care workers across the spectrum, doulas, funeral directors, celebrants, grief workers and anyone who finds themselves standing beside a family in this particular stretch of time.

We'll explore what we notice and what we learn from each other in this space, the gaps nobody trained us for, and the quiet skill of accompaniment when the goodbye has a date on the calendar.

This isn't a clinical or legal session. It's a cultural one. What does it mean to witness a family counting down, and what do we owe them, and each other, in that holding?

NB: This session may be recorded and shared with those who registered but were unable to attend.