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What Is Green Burial, and How Can You Add It to What You Offer?
Mr. Bill Gupton, Founder, former President, and current Cemetery Manager of Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary will provide an overview of natural burial, what is allowed and what is not, the benefits thereof both for families and for the environment. Mr. Gupton will also walk through the steps involved for funeral directors and funeral homes in working with a green burial cemetery for a burial, then answer any questions and be available for discussion.
The Role of a Death Doula at the End of Life
Death Doulas are a new and emerging specialty in end-of-life care. Where hospice provides clinical care, death doulas provide non-clinical services related to planning, legacy, meaning making, and providing emotional support helping to reduce the fear and anxiety associated with death. A death doula can also provide bedside support to the dying person and the family and perform rituals to mark the sacred transition. Given the death phobic state in our culture, it is important for death doulas to provide public education about death awareness. If one can cultivate a relationship to death, it enhances living and there is no age limit on enhancing living. This knowledge will be beneficial to funeral directors because it will allow them to have understanding about this new technique should they have a family they are working with that utilizes the services of a doula; this will provide further insight on what the family has been privy to leading up to the funeral arrangements and/or services. It is extremely important that funeral service professionals understand the role death doulas play and the relationship they too have with the families they serve.
Bill Gupton
Cemetery Manager
Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary
Bill Gupton is the Founder, former President, and current Cemetery Manager of Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary (heritageacresmemorial.org), a non-profit 501(c)3 cemetery that is the only completely natural or “green” burial ground in the Cincinnati and Tri-State region. He is certified in Green Burial Cemetery
Operation by the Green Burial Council (greenburialcouncil.org). Heritage Acres is located on 40 acres of former farmland in Pierce Township, on the east side of Cincinnati, just outside I-275.
Jen Blalock
Death Doula, End-of-Life Guide
Death Doula Cincinnati
Jen Blalock is the founder of Death Doula Cincinnati providing death doula services to the Southwest Ohio region. Along with providing planning, legacy, bedside and emotional support to people and families at the end of life, Jen also dedicates herself to providing public education on the topic of death awareness.
Venue generously sponsored by the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science (CCMS)
645 W. North Bend Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45224