With the ever changing pre-hospital environment, ambulance personnel are now being exposed to more deaths in the community, where people are wanting to die in their own environment, surrounded by their family/whanau and all things familiar to them. However, our clinical education often doesn’t extend to what happens immediately after death, and how best we, as health professionals, can best support, and give guidance where needed, to those grieving a sudden or expected loss of a loved one.

In this webinar we are joined by two Funeral Directors who will openly discuss:

• The process from death to funeral
• Considerations for special circumstances (how do coronial cases differ from expected death, death in a public place, homicide etc)
• Cornerstones of respectful deceased handling
• Specific variances for particular cultures (Indian funerals, for example)
• How to develop the soft skills of interacting with grieving families
• When the police/GP do or don’t need to be involved
• Verification of death versus certification death

Hosted by: Mitch Mullooly, Member Committee Chair, Aotearoa New Zealand

Biographies

Steve Norris

Steve has been working as a Funeral Director at Evans Funeral Services since 2018. A born and bred Gisborne boy who, after living in Auckland for a number of years and then overseas, returned to his home town in 2010 to build a life for himself there with his wife and children. After working at numerous jobs over the years he was approached by a friend who was a Funeral Director at Evans, if he would consider being a Funeral Director. Steve decided to take on the role as a means to help and tautoko the community and whānau’s of the Tairawhiti area. He has enjoyed and grown within that role since.

Nick Evans

Nick Evans lives in Gisborne and in 2003 became a Trainee Embalmer/Funeral director at Evans Funeral Services. Nick worked fulltime in the mortuary completing his New Zealand Certificate in Embalming in 2006. Being a trade qualified embalmer and member of the New Zealand Embalmer Association, he was able to join the New Zealand Disaster Response Team as a volunteer, working in Christchurch after the Earthquake in 2011. This work led him to be nominated as an executive member of the NZEA, which he accepted, and then to become president of the association until early 2019. In 2016, Nick became a Funeral Director and now works with a small team that offers around the clock support for the community, with a funeral director available on the phone 24/7. They are proud to offer services from removal from the place of death, funeral, burial, and cremation services. They are also contractors for the National Coroner’s Office and work very closely with Police for sudden deaths and coronial transfers out of district.