Simone Green

My daughter was the person to say to me why don’t you become an end of life doula; I think it would be good for you. I then went about researching the topic, and quickly felt like I had found the role that I had been moving towards all my life. I will be beside you in a supportive, nonjudgmental way to assist you to live and experience the end of life, you envisage. I can support you with the paperwork for example, wills, advanced care directive, and funeral planning. I can be an extra support at medical appointments due my professional experience. I believe we need to plan for our end of life, just as we do for Weddings, Birthdays and birthing.
I have had many personal and varied personal experiences with death in my life. The first being the sudden unexpected death of my 31-year-old father, when I was eight years old. This experience in time taught me how to be with a child who is experiencing death. I was later the carer for both of my grandparents in the family home with my young children. I was with both in their death journey, and which I now identify as being I their end of life doula. When I was 45 years old my husband became unwell and died twelve months later, and again I was the doula for the family. Recently I had the journey of being beside my daughter, her husband and their 4-year-old daughter, in their journey with their baby Gabriel who was born with a life limiting illness who died at 8 months of age.
In my professional career as a Registered Nurse, in various specialities including Oncology, Renal, Mental Health, Dementia Care and Aged Care, I have had a great deal of experience in being beside a traveller and there significant others in their journey, and always felt privileged to be in the space. I have always felt comfortable to discuss the process of dying and encourage the traveller and their community to be involved without judgment. I also volunteer as telephone crisis support worker which has given me the ability to listen for the person to feel heard.