Your Path Guide Pty Ltd

02/09/2026

Who holds the thread when a family goes home to die?

The medical system does its job. But once a family leaves hospital, the human side of caring for someone at the end of life often becomes invisible. Nobody's told which neighbour used to drop off meals. Nobody's explained when to call palliative care instead of an ambulance.

There's a model for this. It's called Compassionate Communities, and the evidence behind it is strong. A UK trial cut hospital admissions by 14 per cent. A Western Australian trial found 63 per cent fewer hospitalisations.

But someone has to connect the clinical world to the community one. That's navigator work, and End-of-Life Doulas are already doing it. Without funding. Without formal recognition.

It's time we funded it properly.

Read the full piece. Link in the comments.

18/08/2026

Where does an End-of-Life Doula fit?

In a loungeroom? Around a kitchen table? On a hospital ward beside the palliative care team?

The answer is all of the above.

Our latest blog looks at the wide spectrum of doula work, from grassroots community care through to formal settings, and why there is a place for that support at every point along the way.

End-of-Life Doula work does not belong to one place. It runs from death cafes and kitchen tables through to hospital wards and palliative care. Here is why there is a place for that support at ever…

10/08/2026

Yesterday I had the joy of spending time with Jane Smeets at ArtworxGalleryandGifts. She was a co-participant in an artist podcast, jointly with my husband Ben Saunders Artist. Besides admiring her amazing work, I was interested to learn that she has worked in palliative care in the art therapy space. She mentioned during the podcast that her end of life work does influence her art. I love that 🙏🏻❤️

07/08/2026

So glad to be supporting Rainbow Hub South Australia and our community to talk about the important stuff, like end of life planning and options. It was great to work with Jo from End of Life Doula to present this community workshop last year. Hope we can do it again 🙏🏻🌈

As we approach Dying to Know Day on 8 August, it’s time to make sure you’re aware and organised. You can download resources from our 2025 Proudly Prepared: End of Life Planning for Our Community Workshop, led by Jo Fuller and Shannon Beresford, End of Life Doulas and proud LGBTI+ community members. Please note that information is general and changes often: https://rainbowhubsa.com/projects/

Path Guide Pty Ltd

26/07/2026

Across my family, we’ve experienced many journeys with cancer. My end-of-life clients too. Cancer touches everyone. My sister Greer can do that - Artist, Mentor, Inspiring Others is hosting a wonderful fundraiser - her ‘Arty Party’, on Saturday 15 August. This is a fun event where you learn how to paint a beautiful cockatoo. All profits will be donated to The Hospital Research Foundation Group to help the ongoing research into cancer. If you’re in Adelaide and free in the 15th, I’d love to see you there 🙏🏻❤️

19/07/2026

Big news for end-of-life care at home.
The Senate has called for the funding and time limits on the Support at Home End-of-Life Pathway to be scrapped.

Right now, care under this pathway is capped. It doesn’t matter how long someone actually needs it.
Ageing Australia and Palliative Care Australia have welcomed the call. They want a flexible, needs-based model instead. One shaped around the person, not a guess about how long they have left.

Dying doesn’t follow a timetable. Support shouldn’t either.

Ageing Australia and Palliative Care Australia Australia have welcomed a Senate Community Affairs References Committee recommendation to abolish the funding and time restrictions placed on the Support at Home End-of-Life Pathway and develop a flexible, clinically guided, needs-based model for end-of-life care at home.

The recommendation recognises that care at the end of life should be shaped around a person’s needs, not arbitrary limits or uncertain predictions about how long they may live.

Read the joint media release > https://ap1.hubs.ly/H015TqB0

10/07/2026

Yesterday, I had the privilege of supporting my first funeral as a funeral assistant. It was a beautiful farewell 🌺 No matter where I work in the end-of-life journey, I am reminded how incredibly grateful I am to have finally found my heart work 🙏🏻❤️

05/07/2026

Love seeing the changing landscape for burials and memorials across the country. This is the latest one in NSW. Can’t wait for something similar here in SA 🙏🏻

01/07/2026

We put so much faith in medicine at the end of life. And rightly so. But most of what actually makes a death a good one has very little to do with it.

A 2021 review in The Lancet Healthy Longevity brought together 13 systematic reviews and 407 studies to ask a simple question. What makes a good death? It landed on 11 conditions. Only three of them call for medical expertise at all.

The rest is human. Presence. Connection. Being heard. Being at home with the people you love. The things that never come with a Medicare item number.

That's the space End-of-Life Doulas work in, and it's the heart of why the work matters. There's one thread in particular I keep coming back to. Continuity. The medical system passes you from one person to the next, each holding their own small piece of the story. A doula holds the whole of it, from the lead-up, through the dying, and afterwards for the people left behind.

I've written about what the research found, and where a doula fits, over on the blog. Link below.

Most of what makes a death good isn’t medical. New research shows only three of the 11 conditions need medicine. Here’s where an End-of-Life Doula fits.

30/06/2026

For those of you who follow Hospice Nursejulie, I came across her latest podcast this morning where she chats with Alua Arthur from Going with Grace End of Life Planners.

It’s a wonderful, enlightening and thought provoking discussion . I’m so delighted that clinician and doula can come together and talk comfortably about death and understand where each role fits and that we all want the same outcome.

As an End-of-Life Doula (or Death Doula as they refer to), we work in the non-clinical, in between spaces. We also, more importantly, provide a continuity of care that very few support services provide - stretching from pre-death planning, support, education through to post-death support for families and friends.

Our work remains relatively unknown, although that is changing rapidly. More importantly, our work is vital to helping fully support someone who is dying and those supporting them.

Thanks to Julie and Alua, these conversations continue to demystify death but more importantly, bring deeper awareness to the role of End-of-Life Doula.

Thank you 🙏🏻

What can a death doula teach us about living? Turns out... quite a ...