Collection of useful resources

These are some of our favourite resources to support you or those you care for through some of those important conversations. Please share with your community and get in touch if you have a great free resource to share. This list is not exhaustive and we plan to update often.

Support

• Guide for Carers  – A resource by Hospice New Zealand with information and support for people caring for someone with a life limiting condition.
• Kete Aronui | Te Ipu Aronui – practical information to help whānau manaaki provide care to adults and kaumātua at the end of their lives
• Sweet Louise – practical, emotional and social care and support for New Zealanders living with incurable breast cancer.
• Support Crew – making it easy to give and get a hand
• CarersNZ – Carers NZ is a national not for profit supporting a network of approximately 490,000 individual carers and supporting organisations. They do not charge a membership fee and fundraise to share our support resources freely with family carers.
• Downloadable Resources – Te Omanga Hospice
• Patient/Whanau Resources – Resources by Palliative Outcomes Initiative (POI) for patients and whanau in multiple languages
• Information for Carers – A general guide for carers from the Ministry of Social Development.

Planning ahead

• Advance care plan – Access to online and hard copy advance care plan documents, as well as how-to guides. Available in English and Te Reo Māori. 
• Wills – making a will and probate – A good guide explaining what a will is and different options for this.
• Making a Will | Public Trust NZ
• Te Hokinga ā Wairua End of Life Service – Find information to help you create and share a personalised plan of what you want to happen when you die.
• Organ Donation New Zealand
• Your Emotional Will 
• Your Ultimate Guide on Digital Death
• Palliative care – talking about dying | Healthify
• Downloadable Resources – Many excellent resources you may find useful when facing the death of a loved one.

Specialist Palliative Care Services

 
Hospices and hospital palliative care teams provide specialist palliative care. They generally service a particular geographic area. Most public hospitals have a palliative care service. Not all people need specialist palliative care input towards the end of life. Find a hospice below:
 

• Find a Hospice – Hospice New Zealand

Doulas and end-of-life supports

• Cadence Singers – a group of women who seek to bring solace and strength to life’s toughest passages, particularly the pathway of dying.
• End of Life Doulas – A directory of end of life/death doulas in NZ.

Post-death care

• myTrove – A website supported by NZ internal affairs that allows you to inform multiple organisations of a death. 
• Manaaki Mats – Safe, simple, specialist and effective cooling resource for deathcare
• Arranging the funeral – A good summary of some of the legal obligations when arranging a funeral
• Tangihanga | Te Ipu Aronui – Practical advice and around organising Tangihanga
• A death in the family – Advice for whānau
• Funeral Grant – Help with some of the funeral costs of someone who has died
• Urutapu Funeral Services – Providing sustainable, affordable and culturally sensitive funeral services

Loss and Grief

• After a suicide –  practical information and guidance for people bereaved by suicide
• Skylight Trust – support for children, young people, and their whānau to navigate through tough times
• Grief Centre – loss and grief support to youth, adults, families or whānau experiencing any form of significant loss.
• KidsHealth NZ – a guide to bereavement reactions of children & young people by age group
• Downloadable Resources – excellent resources from Te Omanga Hospice particularly addressing grief and how to speak to children about death and dying.

Other directories

• The BIG LIST — The Groundswell Project
• Support Directories – support directories for Te Tai Tokerau and Waitemata regions

Compassionate Communities

• Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief – Scotland’s compassionate communities initiative
• The Groundswell Project – Excellent resources for creating a compassionate community
• Compassionate Communities – Pallium Canada

Interesting articles

• Talking about the Queen and death, with children – an eye opening article
• What happens as we die? – an excellent TED talk by Kathryn Mannix