Re-Imagining the Hospice-Based Memorial Service: Moving Toward Interdependent, Collective Care
摘要
Elizabeth Valera’s essay is written from the perspective of a former hospice and palliative care chaplain and bereavement coordinator. Valera interrogates the categories of patient/provider and bereaved/supporter. Tracking Valera’s personal experience coordinating and attending bi-annual memorial services within multiple hospice agencies, she critiques the problematic and false construct of who is bereaved and who is a supporter, which creates a burden on hospice staff and limits mourners to the role of help-receivers. Recognizing the limitations of the typical bereavement services, the essay continues to describe one nascent example of a reimagined hospice memorial service based on the assertion that hospice is a community service organization holding a crucial role in creating space for dying and grief. Finally, the essay posits that the hospice memorial service should be approached in the broadest possible way such that we all find ourselves within the shared human experience of grief rather than feel burdened or limited by categories of patient and provider.