A Brush with Death

Funeral director, embalmer, owner, and national speaker, Wally Hooker from Family and Friends Funeral Home in Wingate, Indiana, joins “A Brush With Death” to offer some practical advice regarding transfers and embalming during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Today, we are going to be talking about burnout and compassion fatigue. While many in the death care profession hate to admit it, both are very present.

Fortunately, there are people out there working to educate us about those topics and how to deal with them… People like our guest today, Jason Troyer.

As funeral directors we are what some would call the “subject matter experts” in the death care industry. We have learned to embalm, make arrangements, provide services and help those in need. We know how to serve those families come through our door. The question is, how do we get them through the door in the first place?

Increasingly, funeral homes are looking to their websites and social media to get in front of potential clients. “A Brush With Death” sits down with Welton Hong, the founder of Ring Ring Marketing and author of the book “Making your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes.”

Disenfranchised grief is the subject of this month’s NFDA podcast, A Brush with Death.  Disenfranchised grief is grief not openly acknowledged, validated or publicly observed.  Common when a relationship is not recognized, the loss is not recognized (suicide, homicide, substance abuse) or the griever is not recognized, grief is still very real.  Host Gabe Schauf will dive into disenfranchised grief: its causes, effects and how funeral professionals can best serve clients struggling with it.  Our guest is Sara E. Murphy, Ph.D., a faculty member at the University of Rhode Island in the Honors Program and Department of Gender and Women's Studies and an expert on death, dying and bereavement.

NFDA sits down with Ethan Morse to talk about his journey from tomb guard sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to filmmaker. He discusses his films “The Unknowns”, a documentary about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Sentinels who stand guard at our Nation’s most sacred shrine, and the soon-to-be-released “Honor Guard”, a four-part series that highlights the dedication members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment—The Old Guard—show in paying their respects to those who gave all.

Lacy Robinson, CFSP and NFDA’s Director of Member Development, talks with host Gabriel Schauf about how funeral homes can communicate the added value they can bring to the cremation discussion, whether the initial inquiry is via a phone call or during the arrangement conference. Robinson emphasizes that any meaningful cremation discussion should be a conversation about honoring the life of a loved one.

Host Gabriel Schauf and attorney Michael Sharkey, CFSP, CCO, explore legal issues confronting funeral directors and their businesses.  Listen in to learn how to reduce the potential for lawsuits and to discover best practices that can help keep your funeral home out of court.

Host Gabriel Schauf talks with Sara Moss, NFDA’s education manager and a hospice volunteer, about the remarkable end-of-life care hospice professionals provide to patients and their families.  Sara discusses how funeral directors can better interact with hospice workers and their families regarding the support they can provide after a loved one dies.