Death Doulas:
What are death doulas? To answer that question we must first ask, what is a doula? A doula is typically connected with births... they assist mothers on the journey of bringing a baby into the world. Why is there no one to assist those leaving the world? Thus the idea of the death doulas was created. For years and across cultures, death and dying is often a very taboo topic for people to talk about. However, many people in hospice or in the terrible situation of having a terminal illness have to face their own mortality. Death Doulas help with this process. They are not only working to normalize the death and grieving process but at the same time working to create lasting connections during a patients final days.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find many numbers for Doulas and Death Doulas within the United States but in terms of Child Life Specialists, there are 53,500 within the United States as of 2016. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, their annual salaries has a median of $60,000 - but is dependent on the demographics and hospital.
For me personally, I am both intrigued and concerned when I see only 53,500 Child Life Specialists in the United States. There are 250 dedicated Children's Hospitals in the United States - if Child Life Specialists were only in the hospital this would mean that there were 214 Specialists per hospital. However, because they can also be found in private practices, out-patient clinics, and other locations this is not the case. According to Jane, she has 70 Child Life Specialists at Boston Children's Hospital, including music and pet therapy - no where near the 214 that I calculated. There is no data to find where these other Child Life Specialists can be located. Does this mean that we as a society do not value the work of Child Life Specialists? I would agree and disagree with that statement - I would say that we do value it with the justification that every Child Life Specialist that I have spoken to had interactions and experience with them in some capacity in their youth. In my thinking - those interactions must have been extremely valuable and memorable for them to grow up to chase that dream job. But does that mean Child Life Specialists are only valuable to those who have been affected? I would say yes that they are not valued outside of the walls of a Children's Hospital because they are not "advertised".
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This is good information. I'm thinking about our conversation in class last night. Zoe talked about how doulas and child life specialists and youth workers are people in relational jobs. She wondered about how society values/doesn't value this work (in terms of salary, number of positions in a hospital, percentage of hospitals with child life specialists or doulas, whether insurance pays for a child life specialist or doula, access to specialists or doulas after discharge, etc.). I think there is room here to expand this conversation, and broaden to policy implications. This is a place to put in some numbers (percentage of hospitals with child life specialists or with birth doulas or death doulas for example, and salary ranges, especially in relationship to nurses, doctors or other health professionals.
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