Pay for Care Initiative

The Institute is excited to launch its Pay for Care Initiative. The objective of this campaign is to decrease the cost of funerals and wasteful consumption, while also supporting those individuals whose care has been sought by families. This first step in the restructuring of deathcare allows organizations to collaborate with funeral homes, while also establishing fixed costs and the ability to institute a system of checks-and-balances. I’m including the Initiative below, and it is also available on the website as a downloadable document (see “publications”). Please share your thoughts.

Pay for Care Initiative

The Institute on Religious Deathcare and Spiritual Healing proposes that congregations and hospices collaborate with local funeral homes, when appropriate and the need present, to assist with deathcare. IRDSH’s proposed plan for strategical collaboration has many positive components for all parties involved, and we encourage these collaborations nationwide and hope government assistance will endorse such actions.

Currently: The average funeral, as of 2004, costs $6,500 not including cemetery costs. The majority of this cost is for products purchased, not services offered.

Alternatively: IRDSH proposes that Funeral Directors earn their livelihood from care requested by families rather than products consumed. In other words, a Funeral Director may receive $2,500 from an $8,000 funeral. If a family forgoes excessive consumption of products, congregations and both community and governmental organizations can assist low-income families with cost since the accrued fees are drastically less. This change in mortuary practices will sustain local Funeral Directors, compensating those who are asked to perform familial duties.

Similarly, in order to decrease any excessive or illegitimate costs, IRDSH proposes that congregations, hospices, etc collaborate with local funeral homes to establish a fixed price for those families affiliated with the organization. Congregations and communities will need to educate its affiliates about decreasing costs by minimizing consumption, while also reconstructing a funeral home’s objective of self-reliance from products to compensating these individuals for their hands-on care.

Objective

As a result of decreasing the cost of funerals by minimizing the consumption of products, families, congregations and community groups are empowered to support low-income families, while also perpetuating the ability to care for the dead at home, as able. The support systems that are put into place via the decrease in cost enables foundations, organizations, and congregations et al to accumulate funds for those who cannot afford the service of a hired caretaker, i.e. Funeral Director. This not only results in a decrease in costs, but also a decrease in the consumption of precious woods, concrete, metals, and other materials, resulting in more environmentally sound practices; it also supports the intimate and spiritual benefits of familial participation and communal support, while saving tax dollars.