services provided
End-of-life Doula services provided by Gentle Guidings include:
Maximizing the care recipient’s physical comfort
Surrounding the care recipient in a calm, peaceful, holistic environment
Advocating for the care recipient with medical and care personnel, family members, or pertaining facility staff
Providing resources, making referrals and networking with community organizations, agencies, and service providers
Guiding and comforting the care recipient through emotional and psychological challenges
“Holding space”, and forming a trusted confidant and companion relationship
Assisting with the preparation and establishment of detailed health and care directives and/or final wishes
Helping the care recipient resolve any unfinished business they may wish addressed
Navigating the care recipient, with great care and consideration, through their end of life journey
Assisting in the preparation of legacy projects
Offering personalized spiritual support and guidance (as requested)
Providing respite care, guidance and support for the care recipient’s family, love ones, and caretakers
Facilitating “living funerals”
Grieving and bereavement support
The services your Gentle Guidings EOLD provides do not end when your loved one has passed. She remains available to assist in anyway possible – contacting necessary facilities and staff, making phone calls to family and friends, helping with arrangements, and comforting and supporting you and your family through the grieving as well as bereavement processes.
service packages offered
Note: “Client” refers to the person who hires Gentle Guidings services.
In effort to best meet each family’s individual requirements at any given time and (often changing) stage of development, Gentle Guidings offers 3 End-of-life Doula service packages.
1. Per Visit Basis: For this level of care, the client contacts Gentle Guidings on an “as needed” hourly basis. This flexible care is ideal for times when care recipients could use a little extra help, be it with guidance, comfort, or companionship. It’s also great for respite care; sometimes families and caretakers simply need a break to tend to other tasks or just rest. Per Visit care sometimes requires a little flexibly on the client’s part, as clients with previously scheduled visits must, understandably, be your doula’s priority.
2. Scheduled Basis: With this weekly service, clients schedule visits for specific times and days of the week, assuring your doula’s availability at those times. This level of care can ease the strain that arises as requests for assistance for the care recipient increase and help is needed more frequently. Clients may increase or decrease scheduled visits as their needs change.
3. Vigil Sittings: Vigil sittings are typically scheduled as the care recipient nears their end-of-life journey. Your doula will remain beside your loved one, ensuring any expressed desires of their final hours are met, as well as comforting both them and your family. As this can often be a frightening time for family members, your doula will explain each stage of what is happening and what to expect. She will address your concerns and make every effort to put you at ease.
For established clients, our services are volunteered (free of charge) after your loved one passes. Your doula will be available to comfort family members during grieving; to contact necessary agencies and inform them of the patient’s passing and help with arrangements; to call friends and family for you; and to connect you with a bereavement counselor, if needed.
By offering various levels of service, Gentle Guidings aims to ensure every family’s needs are fully met and affordable. At our discretion, we may offer reduced rates based on the client’s income.
For questions or to schedule your free consultation, please use visit our Contact page, or call 419-575-5557.
NEW! Gentle Guidings is very pleased to announce we have partnered with Tender Loving Lens to offer professional photography services. This means we can provide quality photographs of your most treasured moments, such as occasions when family and friends are gathered together to express love, appreciation, and deep reverence with their love one. –Moments you will want captured to be cherished for years to come. These professional photography services are offered at a discount – exclusively for Gentle Guidings clients.