Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome Hospice Home Funeral: How to use this course

    • Hospice Home Funeral Introduction with your instructor, Lee Webster. Learn how to use this course most effectively in your hospice program.
  • 2

    #1 Hospice Home Funeral In-Service: What Hospice Staff Need To Know About Home Funerals and Green Burials

    • #1 Hospice Home Funeral We discuss what a home funeral is, who might want one, what the legal facts are, what the family's responsibilities are, and learn something about disposition options and products.
  • 3

    #2 Hospice Home Funeral In-Service: How Hospice Staff Can Help Families Who Direct Their Own Funerals

    • #2 Hospice Home Funeral We go over the details of hospice responsibilities, legal protocols and protections, liability safeguards, ideas and resources.
  • 4

    #3 Hospice Home Funeral Volunteer Training

    • Hospice Home Funeral Volunteer Training This training is designed for anyone wishing to support families with relevant funeral information, library and toolkit resources

  • 5

    Hear From the Experts

    • Julie Lanoie, hospice RN and home funeral expert, discusses the legal requirements for nurses who go to pronounce when a family chooses to keep a loved one home

    • Dina Stander, hospice board member and end of life navigator, tells stories about her experience supporting families and hospice personnel in home and hospital settings in the minutes and hours after death

    • Janice McDermott, veteran director of hospice and palliative care, explains how the bridge between hospice care and after-death support affects hospice personnel ability to be effective and stay within the agency guidelines

    • Donna Belk, hospice volunteer and home funeral expert, talks about her desire for focus on the spiritual wellbeing of the family instead of logistics in the time immediately after the death

    • Merilynne Rush, RN and director of The Dying Year, relates the importance of hospice support for after death care and what it looks like in a state that legally requires a funeral director to be involved
  • 6

    Readings

    • The Movement to Bring Death Closer - The New York Times

    • The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral Smithsonian Magazine

    • The Emotional Wallop of My Friend's Green Burial

    • A Home Funeral Timeline and Common Home Funeral Questions

    • How Hospices Can Support Families Seeking ‘Green’ Burials - Hospice News

    • 8 Ways Hospices Can Support Home Funeral Families

    • Release of a Body to Next of Kin

    • Becoming a Hospice Volunteer Funeral Educator

    • Social_Justice_WFL_Webster_2018

    • At_The_Ready_EOLDs_and_Hospice

    • Caution Dead Ahead Lee Webster

    • Defining Home Funeral Guides AFD 5.17

    • EOLD Hospice HFG Overlap

    • Hospices Engage with Death Doulas to Support Patients - Hospice News

    • Doulas_NHPCO-info

    • End of Life Doulas – Compassionate Support and Expert Guidance for Your Family Through the Sacred Journey

    • EOL_Doula_Webinar_Sept-2019

    • The End-of-life Doula ASA Merilynne Rush 10.22

    • The End-of-Life Doula Movement - Today's Geriatric Medicine

    • Saratsis article NHPCO Peds e-journal

    • The Yellow Flower

    • What to Do When Families’ Home Funeral Rights Are Challenged

    • What to Expect When Funeral Shopping

    • Book Reading List
  • 7

    Forms, Lists, Handouts, Examples, Charts

    • How_Hospice_Staff_Can_Support_Families_Handout

    • Hospice Action Plan

    • Designation of Agent for After Death Arrangements Form

    • Release of a Body to Next of Kin

    • Sample Body Release Policy Language

    • Quick Guide to Home Funerals By State

    • States Where Families Must Hire a Funeral Director

    • Legal Burial Requirements by State

    • Obituary Checklist

FAQ

  • Who is this for?

    This is an in-service curriculum built for hospice organizations.

  • What is included?

    The curriculum is a series of videos, reading, forms, lists, examples, charts, handouts to help hospice organizations better understand home funerals.

  • How long can we use the in-service curriclum

    This is a three-year license to use the curriculum, including any updates or improvements made to the content during that time.

Your Instructor

Lee Webster

Lee Webster’s experience in education and development for private secondary schools, colleges and universities and serving in nonprofit leadership positions of the National Home Funeral Alliance, Green Burial Council, Conservation Burial Alliance, National End-of-Life Doula Alliance, NH Funeral Resources, Education & Advocacy, and the Funeral Partnership inform her work as a nationally recognized educator in the end of life sphere. She guest lectures routinely at various prominent colleges and universities, and has designed the only course on green funeral practices taught in mortuary schools in the US. Webster has published extensively on a wide range of funeral reform topics and green burial-specific how-to guides, many featured in Changing Landscapes: Exploring the growth of ethical, compassionate and environmentally sustainable green funeral service. Her latest collaborative book, The Future of the Corpse: Our Changing Places and Perceptions of the Dead and Mourning, which was released in the fall of 2021.

Lee Webster explains why she created this course