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Search this Site
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Pan-Death Movement
Definitions, Values,
DJ's Rights, 7 Stages,
Alternative Providers,
CINDEA
Recognition,
Why use Services?

Death Midwifery
Expectations,
Web of Facets,
Advantages of a DM,
CINDEA
Recognition,
Philosophy in Practice

Advance Care
Planning
Final Affairs,
Advance Directives & Representation/Proxy,
Dementia

Post-Death Care and Home Funerals
History,
Why Consider It,
Basics, Videos,
Physical Care,

6 Shroud Patterns,
DJ's Remains

Training
By My Own Heart & Hand
Home Funerals, Greening Death, Children & Deathing Rites


Greening Death
Various forms of
ecological disposition

 

Resources &
Directory
in
Canada —
Pre-Death

National & Provincial

Resources &
Directory in
Canada —
Post-Death

National & Provincial

Resources
Elsewhere

U.S.A., U.K., etc.

Resources
Books & Movies

for Adults & Children



Organization
and Donations

Site Map

Archives
Articles & Updates


 

 

Home
Testimonials

Blogpage
Search this Site
Contact us


Pan-Death Movement
Definitions, Values,
DJ's Rights, 7 Stages,
Alternative Providers,
CINDEA
Recognition,
Why use Services?

Death Midwifery
Expectations,
Web of Facets,
Advantages of a DM,
CINDEA
Recognition,
Philosophy in Practice

Advance Care
Planning
Final Affairs,
Advance Directives & Representation/Proxy,
Dementia

Post-Death Care and Home Funerals
History,
Why Consider It,
Basics, Videos,
Physical Care,

6 Shroud Patterns,
DJ's Remains

Greening Death
Various forms of
ecological disposition

Training
By My Own Heart & Hand
home funerals, Greening Death, Children, and Deathing Rites

Resources &
Directory
in
Canada —
Pre-Death

National & Provincial

Resources &
Directory in
Canada —
Post-Death

National & Provincial

Resources
Elsewhere

U.S.A., U.K., etc.

Resources
Books & Movies

for Adults & Children



Organization
and Donations

Site Map

Archives
Articles & Updates


On this page

Introduction to CINDEA
By My Own Heart and Hand
spiral Post-death Directive
spiral New Blogpage
Terminologyi
General Membership
spiral Navigating this site
spiral Upcoming Events and News
spiral General Information
spiral Mission and Vision Statements
spiral Zoom Visits and Mailing list for CINDEA updates




Page

Introduction to CINDEA

CINDEA is a Canadian-based organization, which respects the wisdom of ancient death traditions and encourages the renewal of older death practices that are appropriate to our modern-day life.   In the past, communities cared for their own dying folk; and creatively adapted, that approach to death is still an option available to us.   CINDEA 's perspective is one of a wide range of initiatives that are drawing our culture into a deeper relationship with nature and the cycles of life and death — the modern version of "a good death" for all involved in it.

We are committed to the unfolding development of the wholistic pan-death movement, including the roles and practices of alternative deathcare.   Clarification of these roles, and what they are called, is in its infancy — therefore, we have offered definitions of several alternative deathcare roles, and we support the networking of various kinds of end-of-life practitioners.   Our site also provides comprehensive dying and death resources — some conventional, though mostly focused on those that are less well-known.

Throughout the site, you will see the word "pan-death" frequently used: it is our way of simply saying "across the whole of the spectrum of dying and death care" (before, during and after death).   The acronym DWENA (Death-care, Wholistic, Ecological, and/or Natural Alternatives) is the umbrella term we use for all practitioners offering services at any part of the pan-death journey: it is relatively synonymous with 'community deathcare'.

We invite you to read through this site and hope that you will find what you are looking for.   We welcome your questions, feedback and participation in refining and promoting this significant mission — contact us.

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Our New Online Training Program

By My Own Heart and Hand

CINDEA has developed an extended online training program available across the country and elsewhere.  This training includes Home Funerals, Greening Death, Deathing Rites, Children and Death, and Grief and the Community of Grieving.

Please check out our new Training (By My Own Heart and Hand) page for more information about the program and to enroll.


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Brand New!

Our first Post-death Directive is a 23-page fillable PDF and includes fields to write out your choices/directives for what will happen to your body and possessions (those not included in your will) after your death.

The Post-death Directive covers topics
from
— deathcare by a funeral home to in a home funeral

— from what you want to wear for 'lying in honour' to what kind of final disposition you want
— from who you want to vigil with your body to who you don't want
— from what items you want in your casket to where you want your ungifted posessions to go.

The Table of Contents is on the right.

The new Post-death Directive costs $22.  We prefer an e-transfer for payment (send to contact@cindea.ca); but if you don't use e-transfer, please contact us for other options.   

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New Blogpage

CINDEA has just started a new blogpage
by the teachers and students of the By My Own Heart and Hand post-death training program.

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Terminology

Clarification of new terms: After winning the right to continue to use the term 'death midwife' in the lower Supreme Court (CMBC vs MaryMoon), it was lost in the appeal (CMBC/AGBC vs MaryMoon).

Although we are continuing to explore ways to reclaim the term 'death midwife', we are legally bound (in BC) to use new terms for the time being.  The terms we are currently using are:

Death midwifery practitioner (DMP): someone who is practicing the philosophy of midwifery applied to deathcare, through the pan-death continuum.

Pan-death guide: someone who offers death midwifery support in a continuum of pre-death (EOL/death doula role), immediately after death (home funeral guide role), and funeral/memorial ceremonies (celebrant role).

For the most part on this site, 'death midwifery practitioner ' and 'pan-death guide' will be used interchangeably.  We realize that this may be a little confusing.  However, we felt it was important to retain the connection to 'death midwifery' (philosophy), as well as have a term that describes 'what they do' (approach in practice) — as 'death midwife' did both.

Deathing: we often use this term, instead of 'death and dying' (which is out of order chronologically!), to indicate that we understand the journey to include all of the process (i.e. a verb, rather than a noun) between preparing choices in advance, terminal diagnosis, active dying, the moment of death, post-deathcare, and funerals/memorials for the Death Journeyer — as well as those who care about them.

Disclaimer: death midwifery practitioners/pan-death guides are not conventional (birth) midwives or health professionals, nor are they members of any of the Colleges of Midwives in Canada   

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Be safe, CINDEA is open for all calls or emails
All blessings!

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General Membership in CINDEA and CAN-ADWEN FB

Changes to the Society Act now allows us to accept general members of CINDEA, and we welcome you to contact us about becoming a general member.   Membership is $20 per year.   We welcome those who are generally interested, as well as DWENA practitioners.

Also all interested folks are welcome to join the CAN-ADWEN Facebook group — articles, events, news, etc. focused on the Canadian development of DWENA/community deathcare, but including significant articles and information from elsewhere.

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Navigating this Site

Further clarification of the CINDEA site as a whole can be found at our site map, which includes full headings of each page's sections.   A further page on Greening Death is planned for the near future.

A quick summary of the CINDEA site is always available on the left menu or through the site map,
or you can search this site for any word or phrase.

CINDEA itself   Home      Organization of CINDEA      Site Map      Search this Site      Contact us
Pan-Death and Alternatives   Pan-death Movement      Death Midwifery 
Preparation for End-of-Life (EOL)   Advance Care Planning      Post-death Care and Home Funerals      Greening Death
Resource Information and Links (including required legal paperwork for each province/territory)  

Resources in Canada — Pre-death      Resources in Canada — Post-death     
Resources Elsewhere (U.S.A, U.K, etc.)
      Resources — Books, Movies, & Documentaries

To contact us or be added to our mailing list   Contact us

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General Information


Discussing "A Family Undertaking"


Brushing teeth



Closing eyes and mouth

By My Own Heart and Hand"
basics in home funerals
workshop

Originally, CINDEA and Journeying Beyond co-sponsor the "By My Own Heart and Hand basics in home funerals" workshops on the West Coast of BC and on Zoom.   Now BMOHAH has been developed as a new extended online Home Funeral/Post-deathcare training program, in which students can begin the program at any time.

This new training program has two primary kinds
of students
a) families preparing for a home funeral
b) DWENA/community deathcare practitioners to better understand post-death care and issues as it might relate to the experience of their future client-families, and as an extra service to offer them

It includes sections on Home Funerals, Greening Death, Deathing Rites, Children and Death, and Grief and the Community of Grieving.

Although the program was developed for Canadians and includes Canadian laws/regulations and paperwork, most of it is useful for students from other countries.  We will help non-Canadian students find the legal information they need in their own country.

See also "DIY Funeral Care: Family-directed Post-death Care and Funerals (often called ‘home funerals’)", written by the co-directors of CINDEA  for the Canadian Funerals Online website, or Post-Death Care at Home as Extended Caregiving, written by the co-directors of CINDEA  for the Caregiving Matters website.


Rolling body onto stretcher using sheet


Placing Techni-ice to cool body



Maneuvering casket through hallways

CINDEA 's "Post-death Care At Home" video series

CINDEA has a series of 5 short separate "Post-death Care At Home" videos on our Post-Death Care and Home Funerals page — including Moving the body; Washing the hair, face and mouth; Washing the body; Dressing the body, and Closing the eyes and mouth; and Moving the body into casket, or Shrouding the body.    We also have an updated PDF on Post-death Physical Care (available for download just below the video thumbnails) — which includes detailed step-by-step instructions on 'how to', as well as a list of supplies required.

These videos and instructions — as well as the General Timeline PDF (including legal paperwork required) — are intended to support families/friends in caring for their own loved ones at home after death.

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Mission Statement

CINDEA (Canadian Integrative Network for Death Education and Alternatives) has been created to:

  provide information and educational resources, focused on a broad spectrum of options throughout the pan-death process (before, during and after death),
  promote pan-death options that are more natural, personalized and/or ecologically-responsible,
  support the networking of those who offer related services in Canada, and
  encourage the acceptance of death as a natural part of the cycle of life,

in order to integrate all of the facets of the pan-death process.

Vision Statement

CINDEA's purpose is to:

  support the modern movement to re-integrate death into the 'cycle of life' in a healthy way within our culture
  inform the public of existing options for the pan-death process that they may not be aware of
  encourage the expansion of pan-death options which are less institutionalized and more personalized to the values of the death journeyer and their family
  support all the required elements of 'dying at home' (including at-home after-death care), as well as encourage care facilities to make more personalized options available within their facility
  encourage the integration of services available before, during and after death
  support the developing movement of death midwives, and establish a process to recognize death midwives who offer pan-death services in Canada — as well as other alternative service providers who offer more specialized services within the pan-death process
  encourage the networking of pan-death service providers, and public accessibility to them
  support options for natural death, green burials, and other ecologically-conscious 'end of life' practices.

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Various Contact Forms

CINDEA and By My Own Heart and Hand introduction
You can sign up here for a short introductory Zoom visit.
The general hours are noon to 8 pm Pacific time, but will need to be confirm.

 

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Mailing List for CINDEA  Updates

You can subscribe to be put on our mailing list for occasional updates on CINDEA' s development and pan-deathcare community news.

Subscribe to receive CINDEA newsletters & communications.

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We support the following

NHFA                 DDNI              rainbow flag

 

CINDEA is now on Facebook — with updates as they happen.
Our thanks to Skeena web services for hosting this site.
We also acknowledge the use of (now defunct) GRsites programs and backgrounds.





Last updated June 2023    © CINDEA  (To use more than a brief extract, please contact us for permission.)