For funeral directors, the most important thing is to provide grieving families support and meaningful, personalized funerals that honor their deceased loved one.
This is a lot for funeral directors to take on, but they don’t always have to do it alone. With the insight of hospice caregivers, funeral homes and hospice services can work together to give families everything they need during their difficult time of loss and grief.
According to the 2015 statistics from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), 45% of all deaths occur under hospice care. That’s almost half of all deaths occurring under hospice care. With those facts, it’s important that funeral directors build relationships with hospice caregivers to provide families with the best experience possible.
Building Connections with Hospice
Funeral homes and hospice services can go hand in hand by working together to help grieving families. Funeral directors can ask hospice caregivers for information about the deceased and their family and their desires for the funeral. Since they have been taking care of the deceased and working with their family, they may have a better idea of what they think they would be interested in for the funeral service and how to personalize the funeral so it reflects their loved one’s interests.
Not only does it benefit your funeral home, it also benefits the hospice services and families you’re both working with. Both funeral directors and hospice caregivers want to provide families and their loved ones with the proper care and grief support. If funeral directors give hospice caregivers information about the funeral planning process and coping with grief, they can share this information with the grieving families right away before they start the funeral planning process.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Besides online promotion and advertising, communication by word-of-mouth is another way to market your funeral home and make it known to your community. By building relationships with hospice caregivers, they’ll spread the word about your funeral home to other families who will need to make funeral planning decisions when the time comes for their loved one in hospice care. These families have been working with the hospice caregivers and trusting them to take care of their loved one, so they’re significant influencers when it comes to funeral planning suggestions.
Funeral Homes and Hospice: Team Effort
Hospice and funeral homes joining forces to create community events can help spread the word about your funeral home and educate the community on dealing with grief, funeral planning, and other important topics to ease their stress during an already difficult time. According to the NHPCO, 91.6% of hospices offer community bereavement care, so working together to implement a community grief program or educational lecture would be beneficial to everyone.
Some event and seminar suggestions to team up on are:
- Collaborate on working a charity event, volunteer opportunity, or fundraiser for a cause
- Create an aftercare program to help families cope and adjust to life without the deceased
- Educate your community about dealing with grief by hosting educational seminars
- Find influential speakers or community leaders to educate your community about coping with death
- Hold an event to educate families about preplanning funerals
- Host a holiday remembrance program
- Invite current and potential client families to a holiday luncheon to provide educational resources and check in to see how they’re doing
- Moderate an online forum for answering families’ questions and concerns
- Put together a memorial service to honor and remember the lives of families’ deceased loved ones
- Share helpful resources from each other on your social media pages
Does your funeral home work with hospice services in your community? Share your experiences in the comments below!
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