Apr 14, 2022
This episode features Si Qi Yoong (National University of
Singapore, Singapore).
Death doula is a relatively new role found in the United States,
United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Death doulas provide support
to the dying and their families. There is uncertainty about its
roles, scope of practice, regulation and position within the
healthcare system.
This review clarifies the uncertainty of the death doula movement
in terms of its roles, impacts of care and regulation issues. This
review identifies five common roles death doulas undertake when
providing non-clinical care to support the dying and their
families. The review highlights a lack of experimental research to
examine the actual effects of death doulas among the dying and
their families and echoes a paucity of professional
regulations over its training process and practice.
Death doulas could be a valuable addition to existing end-of-life
care services by alleviating the healthcare system’s time and
resource constraints. A need exists for future research to
investigate its actual effect among the dying and their families.
The lack of regulation of death doulas may imply a lack of
acknowledgement of this role, calling for more efforts from diverse
stakeholders. A better understanding of this newly emerged care
model could pave the way for its recognition and integration into
existing healthcare and social care systems.