After Death Care
For as long as humans have existed, we have cared for each other at the end of life, including after death. Center for Solace provides volunteer support to interested clients and their families in understanding their options, making a plan, and carrying out this ancient and visionary human-to-human connection.
The After Death Care volunteers at Center for Solace provide education and practical support to families who would like to participate in caring for their loved one’s body during the time between death and disposition. We support families in exercising their legal right to wash, dress, and prepare their loved one’s body; cool the body and hold it in the home for a period of hours or days; transport it to its final destination; and/or design and host meaningful ceremonies honoring the person who has died.
Every family will have different needs and values. Volunteers meet with clients and loved ones to get clear on their goals, then develop a plan to support each family’s unique process. Volunteers empower families and community members to step back into the circle of caring for our dead, which is our birthright as humans.
Those seeking After Death Care support must first become clients of the Center for Solace. Once a client, the program coordinator will assign volunteers to begin the discussion that will become an after death plan. At this time, we require After Death clients to be enrolled in medical Hospice as well as CfS.
All services are free of charge & confidential. Please contact our Program Coordinator for more information.
Volunteers for the After Death Care Program are pulled from our Hospice Volunteer program. If you are interested in learning more about our volunteer trainings, click here.
Our After Death Care Program is coordinated by Erica Breen
802-257-0775 ext 112 erica.breen@cfsolace.org
We’re grateful to have cared for Mom here at home after her home death…I remember hearing about her grandmother being laid out at their house when she was a kid.
– Anonymous After Death Care client