Whether they deserve the criticism or not, funeral directors and funeral homes sometimes get some very bad press or we read some devastating review of a funeral service written by persons who expected, needed more than what they got on the price list. Why is that, you might ask yourselves, when you feel you covered very base in the funeralization services the family asked for and you provided.
Are you dropping the ball?
Did it ever occur to you that perhaps your funeral director might have exceeded his or her skill set? That what they may have started wasn’t really finished? That they left you and your family, the paying bereaved, at the end of a long pier with nowhere to go but off the deep end
I’m not just picking on the funeral director or the funeral home staff. I’m also talking about poorly trained clergy or clergy who accept a gig with a funeral home but who have no clue how to provide what the bereaved need. For any professional or paraprofessional to attempt to provide services for which they are not fully trained, competent, and experienced is almost criminal, and can have tragic circumstance in the short term and certainly over the longer term, particularly in the bereavement situation? But we still have funeral directors and funeral home staff who try to be spiritual guides and psychospiritual facilitators, bereavement support providers, and they are not trained to do that. Worse still, we have clergy or ministers who have their eye on the fee and attempt to perform effective and complex funeralization rituals but have neither the training, the requisite knowledge, nor do they have the communications skills necessary to the task, and end up simply provided a lackluster service and a meaningless ceremony. Sometimes one really has to ask don’t they have any self-awareness? Are they that arrogant or greedy to think you have the skills to do everything?
Is this where you’re leaving the bereaved?
Well that can happen when they attempt to do more than what they have been trained to do
I’m writing from the vantage point of having witnessed some pretty awful and uninspiring attempts at memorialization and bereavement services that have sent me home almost sick to my stomach, wondering what in the world did that funeral director think when engaging that clown. Or doesn’t that funeral director realize how shallow his prayer delivery is? Don’t they have any sensitivity for the lack of depth they are exhibiting to persons in existential crisis? Obviously no one has bothered to point out their shortcomings to them. Doe they even care? Would they care?
Not only do many funeral homes simply ask if the family belongs to a faith community, and if they do, simply make a phone call to coordinate a funeral service with a minister who probably never even met the deceased or couldn’t pick out the family in a lineup. Some funeral directors simply hand the bereaved a clergy list at some time during the arrangements conference and leave it at that. Others couldn’t even care that much and simply offer to lead a graveside prayer, intoning a bland “Lord’s Prayer” or, if you’re really lucky, might even read a staid “The Lord is My Shepherd”, before flatly dismissing the family. And you wonder that you don’t have customer loyalty? Wake up!
Thanks! But where now….
“Would you like some time with our chaplain?” That might well be one of the most important and meaningful questions a funeral director might ask of the bereaved. It shows several things: First, it shows that they have an appreciation for the various levels of the bereavement experience. Secondly, it gives the bereaved permission to acknowledge that they are also experiencing a spiritual component to their bereavement. Thirdly, it gives permission for the bereaved to open up a discussion about a religious or spiritual component to the funeralization services the funeral home is offering. It also demonstrates that the funeral home offers complete care and are not just interested in selling you tangible products and services. It all adds up to a statement that the funeral home actually cares about your holistic wellbeing, care of you the bereaved. But do they ask that simple question? Have you ever event thought of asking it? Or do they expect the bereaved to come in with a laundry list of services they expect the funeral home to provide?
Falling apart and no one to help!
It is a simple expression that shows they care. It’s a simple expression that shows they appreciate the complexity of bereavement. It’s a simple expression that shows they know their business.
One of the most satisfying things that I have heard recently is when, at the conclusion of the graveside service, the funeral director addressed the family and thanked me on behalf of the family. The funeral director, addressing the rather large group of mourners, said: “We’d like to thank Chaplain Harold for this beautiful service he created for S. I sat in on the family conference he had with M. & H., and I know he really cares.” The beautiful note I received from the family several days later was all the encouragement I ever needed to continue what some feel is a very difficult ministry. It is difficult, and draining at times. But it builds relationships and it brings healing. Sometimes it is incredibly uplifting when you know you really made a difference.
One of the universal characteristics of bereavement, loss of any kind, is suffering. Suffering may be physical or mental or spiritual or all of these. Suffering has been referred to in the professional literature as an illness that benefits from treatment on the path to healing. I’ve often referred to mortuary science as being an extension of medical science; they have so much in common. There’s suffering, illness, and the hope of healing, if not cure. If you think about the parallels for a moment and you’ll be awestruck.
So why is it that funeral homes and funeral directors don’t ask that very important question? Is it that their training doesn’t emphasize the fact of psychospiritual suffering and dumps it all into a big bucket called grief? Is it because funeral directors don’t have a complete understanding of the psychospiritual aspects of deathcare and the importance of spirituality in providing deathcare? Is it because they simply brush it off as the responsibility of the family to find spiritual support? Or is it because they feel, like most healthcare providers, that if it’s not physical, let the clergy have it (regardless of competence)? Or can it be that funeral directors simply don’t want to get involved in anything more than just a disposal service? Could be a little of all of the above, don’t you think so? (Those same questions could be asked of the healthcare professions, too, with similar outcomes!)
Caregivers at all stages in the dying, death and after-death experience should be providing this support up to and and at hand-off to the next caregiver team, including hand-off of the deceased and the bereaved to the funeralization professionals who will be providing deathcare services. The care should be seamless. But far from being seamless it all to frequently is simply non-existent.
In reality, a funeral director can’t do it all; if he or she tries, they run the risk of mistake or even offending, and that can have disastrous repercussions. Professional wisdom and humility would require that they do what they do best and are best equipped to do, and leave the rest to those with the requisite expertise. Why should the psychospiritual care of your families be any different? After all, the funeral director doesn’t entrust embalming or reconstruction to the florist or the hearse driver, do they?
This is the whole purpose of what we do and why we do it.
As a professional interfaith bereavement chaplain, I have spent years studying spirituality. I have covered the literature across cultures and belief traditions. I have established networks of colleagues through retreats, conferences, and continuing education. But more than that, I have assisted hundreds of families in getting through the grief and mourning associated with bereavement, and have helped in the closure and healing through well orchestrated, compassionate, and personalized funeral rituals.
Does your family funeral home offer a holistic funeralization team that provide you and your family that expertise, and can they provide the whole range of psychospiritual facilitation services either on an on-call or p.r.n. basis, or on a part-time basis on site, at their location or at a location convenient for you and your family? The cost is very reasonable and the benefits to you and your family are immeasurably enduring.
Why not take steps to discuss with a trained bereavement chaplain how you can get these services, which funeral homes provide the, and how you can obtain professional spiritual care for you and your loved ones? Why not do that today, now?
If have any questions, please don’t wait another minute before contacting us for a bereavement chaplain near you for ideas on how to establish a partnership to provide your family with the best deathcare and follow-up care possible.
For Autor Contact Details or for Further Information Please Contact:
Compassionate.Care.Associates@gmail.com
