Credit: Konstantinos Drossos
Fanshawe’s doula studies program held its annual project showcase called ‘Doing Deathcare Differently’, where groups of students presented a variety of coping methods aimed at helping people struggling with dealing with grief.
Doing deathcare differently was created to shine a light on the topic of deathcare and to generate conversation about death.
“The inspiration behind our event of doing deathcare differently is taking appraisal of the incredible work that already exists within our community. We thought about how we could contribute and widen the opportunities for people to engage in conversations around death, perhaps in a new way in ways that weren’t happening at the level of communities, so doing deathcare differently is really about why didn’t this scope around death awareness and death education at a community level” said Jodi Hall, a Doula professor and organizer of the event.
The event was held in the Canada Life Village Square, decorated with candlelights in a dimly lit room. The students’ projects were lined up on the edge of the space where they explained their ideas, research, and interactive displays of their coping methods.
“The great thing about this event is they all got to pick which ideas they wanted to do based on their interests” Christal Malone, a professor in doula studies.
Alongside the unique methods, the projects showcased the various responsibilities doulas are tasked with when dealing with different situations.
“We have ‘creating comfort’, which links a lot to birth and postpartum work as well because it’s about bringing Comfort to people that are dying and so they’re using a lot of interprofessional skills that they learned as birth doulas as well because we have things like comfort measures and labour and we also have sent it or shredded letters where people can write a letter to themselves about a death and you can either shred it or send it,” said Malone.
One stand showcased a telephone booth where people could pick up the telephone and have a conversation with a loved one who had passed.
“the wind phone which was developed in Japan after the hurricane and the earthquakes and it’s a place for someone to go into a phone that’s not connected, pick it up and talk to their loved ones. It’s a beautiful concept. So we built one for the people that are participating to examine” said Malone
Another group of students showed an alternative for burials called ‘Eco Death’ which highlighted the burial process and made it more sustainable for the environment.
“It shows our students the depth of their knowledge and their interests and their passion and bringing death care to the Forefront and helping with deaf literacy. And I think it highlights their organizational skills their personal ability skills and shows the community just like how passionate we are of this with this stuff” said Malone
Industry partners of the program were present at the showcase interacting with each of the students’ projects as well as engaging in conversations about their ideas and how they would apply them in the field.
Comments