Journey's End, Part 2: An Educational Guide to Death and Dying

In Journey's End we write about death, dying, and end-of-life issues. We attempt to define and describe these real-life circumstances, and we discuss ways to proactively deal with them. Multiple personal and professional perspectives provide valuable insights.

What is dying like for the dying person, for loved ones, and for those who lend support? Each experience will have unique qualities. While we explore the dying process, we make no assumptions about how any particular death will unfold.

In Journey's End, Part 2: An Educational Guide to Death and Dying, our primary focus is education for students, laypersons, or professionals. Resources, tools, professional training information, and grief and bereavement support, material about assisted dying and euthanasia policies from around the world are covered in this book. Also included are professional perspectives to assist the reader in preparing themselves or to support others in their dying times.

My educational background and training provide me with a good foundation for my professional path. I have a master of social work degree with a bachelor's in sociology. I have worked as a case manager for twenty-one years and a therapist for one and a half years. I also volunteered for six months before I found employment in Canada in the social services field. Helping others is my calling and has been for as long as I can remember.

As a professional who spent the past twenty years working with older adults, death, dying, and end-of-life issues come up. We will all die one day. We just do not know when. Many of us assume it is when we will be “older,” but when you look around and see youth who are dying or diagnosed with cancer or other degenerative diseases and illnesses, you realize it can be any time.

Julie Saeger Nierenberg