National Palliative Care Week - Cool Beds and Home Vigils
This week is National Palliative Care Week, Australia’s largest annual awareness-raising initiative to increase understanding of the many benefits of palliative care. At Life Rites, we work hand in glove with community palliative care teams of nurses and doctors to facilitate a seamless transition from death to after death care, be it in a hospital or home setting. The relationships of patient advocates, end of life doulas and holistic funeral directors working closely with the primary and allied health care teams is the place where innovative best practice can and will be consolidated, increasing our death literacy and better health and grieving outcomes for all.
A cool bed set up in our chapel for display
Life Rites can facilitate after-death care at home so family and friends can spend valuable time together in a familiar and comforting environment. To help you facilitate a successful vigil, we provide expert guidance and support. We can:
Facilitate home care and/or bringing your loved one home to die.
Transport your person home from the place of their death.
Help you plan and support a home vigil, including body-care washing and anointing.
Provide a simple to use and portable cooling plate (see below).
Offer an integrated model of holistic funeral care.
Oversee and support all involved in the vigil.
Attend to all legal paperwork and practicalities.
Organise pick up and transport once the vigil is complete.
‘I feel very strongly that it was the right thing for me, and the right thing for my daughters. If he’d died in a hospital, it wouldn’t have been as real. This was earthy. It felt natural. It allowed us to take a breath. This is the cycle of life.’
Cooling beds or plates for funerals allow you and your family to take your time in the precious and often confusing days immediately following a death. They are available to you if you wish to conduct a vigil or keep your family member at home for a while after they have died, before you engage the services of a funeral director.
Sydney’s first cool bed
When Julie Goswell’s cancer returned in 2008, at the age of 35, Jules was determined her community would have the opportunity to travel with her as she met the challenges of living and dying. She wanted to know as much as possible about what would happen to her body as she died – and after.
Victoria and Jules
It was important to her and her partner that she stayed at home after she died, and we did this with dry ice and lots of hands-on care.
Jules’s coffin was brought to the home and decorated and people came and spent time with her. It was a rich and bonding time for everyone involved.
In an act of deep generosity, in keeping with Jules’s nature and politics, she left a bequest that meant Life Rites could purchase the first cool bed in the Sydney Metropolitan area. It has since supported many families to continue to care for their own at home.
We love you, Jules x
Slowing down the process
By slowing down the process between death and the funeral arrangements, you are able to catch your breath and begin the task of knowing what is best for you, your family and your community.
The Australian Health Department Regulations allow the body of your family member or friend to be at home for up to 5 days for personal and cultural reasons. Most people only wish to extend their time by a few hours or overnight. To do so, the body needs to be supported by keeping the temperature between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius, and the surrounding area cool.
If the death is unexpected, it may become a ‘reportable’ death, which means the body of your family member or friend may need to go to the coroner for the cause of death to be determined. Life Rites would then arrange to bring your person home for the vigil.
A Life Rites’ practitioner will talk you through the set up and use of the cooling bed and how best to support all involved during this time. We can deliver the bed to your home, walk through the preparation of your family member with you, and be available to oversee the vigil as needed.
Rosie’s Vigil
When Rosie died, her family continued to care for her at home for 4 days, just as they had during her illness. She was celebrated with a home funeral and there couldn’t have been a more appropriate way for her family and friends to reflect on who Rosie was and remember her.
Rosie’s granddaughter painting her nails as Rosie lies in vigil in her home, where she died.