Shifting Deathcare : Tools for a New Paradigm
A Self-Study Online Course created by leaders in the death community on how to facilitate a good death for all.
During this self-study course we will explore these questions and more through the lens of privilege, identity, and bias.
Shifting Deathcare: Tools for a New Paradigm was created by five Black Women, for anyone showing up in the practice of deathcare in their wholeness to support others in theirs.
Getting Started!
Meet Your Instructor Alua Arthur
Welcome Video
Welcome Video (ASL)
Meet your Instructor Oceana Sawyer
Module 1 Video
Module 1 Video (ASL)
Module 1 Quiz : What is a Good Death for People on the Margins
Meet Your Instructor Lashanna Williams
Module 2 Video
Module 2 Video (ASL)
Module 2 Quiz : Words. Language. Impact.
Meet Your Instructor Joél Simone Anthony
Module 3 Video
Module 3 Video pt 1 (ASL)
Module 3 Video pt 2 (ASL)
Module 3 Quiz : Approaching BIPOC Death and Grief as a Guest
Meet Your Instructor Alica Forneret
Worksheet #1 : What have you learned about your own grief?
Worksheet #2: Mapping your ecosystem
Worksheet #3: What kind of support system can you be?
Module 4 Video
Module 4 Video (ASL)
Module 4 Quiz: Understanding the Complexities of Grief
Conclusion Video
Conclusion Video (ASL)
Instructor Information
Resource List
Continuing Education Credit Contact Form
Final Thoughts
Hear what our students are saying about Shifting Deathcare
“I work in Hospice and this information was great to hear from five woman of color. This course should be taken by all Hospice workers. Thank you so much.”
“Outstanding communal effort to share knowledge and wisdom! These five wisdom keepers (Alua Arthur, Oceana Sawyer, Lashanna Williams, Joe'l Simone Anthony, Alica Forneret) came together in our time of collective need and brought forth an outpouring of knowledge and wisdom forged in the fires of their personal experience. I feel so honored to be a recipient of the love and respect with which they shared these teachings. I gained important tools of self-reflection and new perspectives that I will take with me into the birthing of my own service, as a guest, to the dying, the dead, and those in grief. Thank you, thank you Beautiful Women!”
“I had the privilege and pleasure of learning from Alua Arthur, Oceana Sawyer, Lashanna Williams, Joe’l Simone Anthony, and Alicia Forneret in this course. I learned so much about implicit bias across all aspects of death care and learned how to identify the way my own privilege has impacted the care I provide. This course is a well-crafted starting point for me to continue doing the work of decolonizing how I approach how I speak and how I listen in my work and at home.”
“Multidimensional training with much to offer! I trained as a death doula (although I've never practiced), several years ago, and found a lack of conversation about structural racism in end of life care, and in deaths themselves, in death care spaces particularly unnerving. I was so excited to see that Going with Grace was offering "Shifting Deathcare: Tools for a New Paradigm," because I recognize how pervasive anti-Blackness is in impacting how Black Americans die and the kind of care they experience and feel they can advocate for while dying. I loved learning about the radicalization of a "good death" (i.e. its continued inaccessibility to many), the importance of language for nonjudgmental support, disenfranchised grief and histories/practices of homegoing rituals in black communities, and how to provide informed and prepared grief support. As a Black doula (birth/perinatal bereavement/abortion) without a lot of experience in end of life care that primarily supports adults at the end of their lives and their families, I learned a lot and am eager to learn more! ”
“Learning about the importance of funeralization and how (as a funeral professional myself) to approach BIPOC grief and funeral arrangements as a guest is a highly valuable lesson. I was grateful for the history of homegoings, how that history connects to modern tradition, and the insight that current events affect how BIPOC experience not just life but death/loss, too, and that it can inform perception and feeling even if the family you're working with didn't necessarily experience a traumatic/violent death. I also appreciated looking at embalming/restorative art with the removal of a privileged view. It was a nice reminder that these things can be powerful and healing tools. Thank you Joél! ”
“I am so glad I took this course, It was really an eye opening for me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.”
Explore your willingness to learn, grow and change as we build a new paradigm for deathwork.
It IS an opportunity for all people to gain a better understanding of some of the challenges that people face at the end of life who are marginalized in the current and historic context of systemic racism that pervades all of our institutions.
This is only the beginning. We hope you will join.
This course is a APFSP accredited course for .5 credits (5hours of credit). The credit is only for Licensed Funeral Directors and Embalmers in the states that accept APFSP certified courses. (Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington D.C., Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin)
Yes, this course is for anyone in the death and dying community.
Shifting Deathcare: Tools for a New Paradigm is a 6- module course, including teaching videos (30-60 minutes each), and end module quizzes. Additional resources, worksheets, and self-reflections are also included.
Yes, the course videos are offered with closed captioning and ASL translations.
You will have access to the course content for 6 months after your enrollment date. If you need more time to complete the course, we are happy to give an extension on a case by case basis.
Email grace@goingwithgrace.com and we will be happy to assist you.
Donate to the End of Life Training Scholarship Fund today. We appreciate your support.