At Compassion Crossing Academy, we offer short, self-directed classes that help you learn with confidence. Each unit is designed for quick, meaningful progress in 30 to 120 minutes. We turn complicated topics into clear guidance you can understand and apply.

Someone has told you they're ready to die.

Maybe it's a client who hired you to guide them through their final chapter. Maybe it's a patient you've been caring for. Maybe it's someone you love. They've looked at you with clarity and said they're done fighting. Their body hurts. Their spirit is exhausted. They've decided to stop eating and drinking, and they need you to help them through it.

Now you're standing at the edge of something you've never done before.

You want to support them. You believe in their right to choose. But you don't know how to actually do this. What medications keep someone comfortable during VSED? How do you get hospice involved when the person isn't technically terminal? What happens if the facility threatens legal action? How long will this take? What symptoms should you expect? And how do you protect someone's wishes when they can no longer speak for themselves?

Whether you're a family member, an end-of-life doula, a nurse, a social worker, a caregiver, or an advocate, you're facing the same impossible situation.

You have responsibility without a roadmap. Commitment without training. And the stakes couldn't be higher.

The doctor won't engage with the conversation. The nursing home administrator talks about liability concerns. Other family members are angry or confused. You're caught between honoring someone's autonomy and navigating a medical system that resists this choice at every turn. You're terrified of making a mistake that causes unnecessary suffering.

You've heard about Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking. VSED. It's legal. It's within someone's rights. It makes sense as a natural end-of-life option.

But nobody teaches you how to actually support someone through it.

Where do you start? What legal documents protect this decision? How do you respond when someone asks for water after they've forgotten their choice? What's the difference between normal discomfort and a crisis requiring intervention? How do you calculate medication dosing so you don't have to constantly call the pharmacy? How do you handle institutional pushback or family conflict?

These aren't abstract questions. They're the difference between a peaceful death and prolonged suffering. Between family harmony and relationships destroyed by misunderstanding. Between confidence and crippling second-guessing that follows you long after this person is gone.

Most people supporting VSED are figuring it out as they go.

They don't know which medications to request or how to advocate with resistant providers. They don't realize that even small amounts of liquid drastically prolong the process and increase discomfort. They misinterpret dying symptoms as emergencies. They face opposition from facilities, family members, or medical staff without understanding their legal standing. They carry emotional weight without support.

If you're a professional, you need competent training. If you're a family member, you need honest information. Either way, you need someone who has walked this path before to tell you what's coming.

That's what this class provides.

Peter M. Abraham, BSN, RN, EOLD, has spent his career in end-of-life care, including guiding individuals and families through the VSED journey. He's navigated the medical complexities, the legal gray areas, the institutional resistance, and the emotional intensity that comes with supporting someone's choice to die by fasting. He knows what works, what creates problems, and what people desperately wish they'd known sooner.

Now he's teaching everything he knows about Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED) in The Journey of Choosing to Die by Fasting.

This comprehensive online class provides practical, actionable knowledge for supporting someone through VSED, whether you're providing professional services or caring for a loved one.

The course walks you through the entire process. You'll learn the guiding principles that make VSED peaceful instead of traumatic. You'll receive five detailed handouts covering the dying process, symptom management, frequently asked questions, recommended resources, and an advance directive specifically designed for VSED.

You'll discover strategies for getting a non-terminal individual onto hospice care, which is often the biggest obstacle in the VSED journey. You'll review common hospice medications to understand what each does and when to use it. You'll learn about the fine line with morphine as it relates to VSED and why proper timing matters.

Peter even teaches basic medical math so you can calculate when liquid medication refills are needed, eliminating one source of stress during an already overwhelming time.

The class tackles the questions people are afraid to ask. How do you handle a nursing home that refuses to honor someone's wishes? What do you say when family members accuse you of giving up or worse? What does active dying actually look like, hour by hour, so you're not blindsided by normal changes? How do you manage your own emotional response while staying present for someone else's journey?

This class serves multiple audiences with one unified goal: competent, compassionate support for people choosing VSED.

If you're an end-of-life doula, nurse, social worker, caregiver, or advocate, this gives you professional training in an area where formal education is almost nonexistent. If you're a family member, this gives you the knowledge to honor someone's choice without fear or regret. If you're considering VSED for yourself, this helps you understand the full journey and prepare the people who will support you.

Everyone involved deserves clarity. Confidence. Support. The person choosing VSED deserves a peaceful death on their own terms. The people walking beside them deserve the tools to provide that without drowning in uncertainty.

This class delivers all of that.

Enroll today in Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED): The Journey of Choosing to Die by Fasting and gain the knowledge to support this profound choice with competence and compassion. Because when someone trusts you to walk beside them through their final journey, you deserve to know the way.