The Good Death: A Handbook for Supporting Your Loved One Through the End of Life

The founder and CEO of Doulagivers Institute provides insight into what constitutes a ＂good death＂ and how we can help our loved ones through this monumental transition with empathy, patience, and peace of mind.

For most of us, there is no harder life experience than caring for a loved one who is dying. Suzanne O’Brien realized this earlier than most during her her time working as a nurse in hospice care, often offered as a comforting alternative to a sterile hospital environment. But Suzanne saw the real financial and staffing limitation that came with hospice, and, realizing this option didn’t provide all the answers, wanted to take it a step further, providing her patients and their families with the tools to approach the death of a loved one with grace, dignity, knowledge, and compassion.

In 2012, Suzanne founded the Doulagivers Institute, which has since trained hundreds of thousands of doulas around the world. The Good Death will distill down the information of this course and all that Suzanne has learned during her decades in healthcare to provide the reader with a step-by-step guide to preparing for the future death of a loved one, and helping them through the actual passing when the time comes. This book will equip the reader with everything they need to know to prepare for a financial, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual good death - both for them, and for their loved one.

Suzanne B. O’Brien, RN is the Founder & CEO of Doulagivers Institute. Her life’s mission is to increase access to high quality end of life education and care for patients and families throughout the world. She has developed free resources and trainings for family caregivers and practitioners from her firsthand experience as a hospice and oncology nurse and palliative care professional at the bedsides of more than 1,000 end of life patients.

Suzanne has been awarded ＂Worldwide Leader in Healthcare＂ by the International Nurses Association for creating Doulagivers Institute and was named Humanitarian Ambassador for Oprah Magazine in 2019 for her work to bring peace and comfort to those facing the end of life around the world. She has a degree in Transpersonal Counseling and Spiritual Ministry from the Association for the Integration of the Whole Person in Los Alamitos, California. She is also a founding member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s End of Life Doula Council and a founding member and Former VP of the National End of Life Doula Alliance.