Resources
Things worth knowing.
A curated, opinionated short list. Forms to fill out while there is time. Books that change how you think about dying. Local organizations holding the work. Training paths for those called to do it.
Planning tools
Free, official, fill out today
Washington Advance Directive
The state's official advance health care directive form, free to download and fill out.
POLST (Portable Orders)
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. For people with serious illness, a portable medical order honored across care settings.
Death with Dignity in WA
Washington's Death with Dignity Act, signed into law in 2008. Detailed guidance and qualification criteria.
Five Wishes
A widely-used living will document that addresses personal, emotional, and spiritual needs alongside medical wishes.
Local organizations
Puget Sound + Washington
A Sacred Passing
South Seattle nonprofit offering death doula training, community death-care education, VSED & MAID resources, and a place to die.
People's Memorial Association
Free classes on end-of-life planning, funeral options, green burial, human composting, and more. Member-based, Seattle since 1939.
End of Life Washington
Statewide advocacy and direct support for end-of-life choice, advance care planning, and clinician education.
Recompose
Seattle-based, the first licensed human composting (natural organic reduction) facility in the world.
Books
If you read only a few
Being Mortal
Atul Gawande
Foundational reading on what modern medicine has gotten wrong about the end of life, and how to do better.
Caring for the Dying
Henry Fersko-Weiss
The book that founded the modern doula movement, by INELDA's founder. Practical, structured, lived.
Cultivating the Doula Heart
Francesca Arnoldy
A doula's reflective primer on presence, listening, and the inner work of this practice.
On Death and Dying
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
The classic that gave us "the five stages." Still essential, often misread, so read it whole.
With the End in Mind
Kathryn Mannix
A palliative care physician's case-by-case telling of what dying actually looks like. Demystifying.
Training paths
For those called to this work
INELDA
International End-of-Life Doula Association. National training programs and certification.
NEDA
National End-of-Life Doula Alliance. Proficiency badging and national directory.
Going with Grace
End-of-life planning, doula training, and grief support from Alua Arthur and team.
Doulagivers
End-of-life doula training with global reach and tiered certification paths.
A starting place
If you only do one thing this week.
Download an advance directive. Fill it out. Tell one person where it is. That alone will change what happens at your end of life, and theirs.