Hospice Foundation of America
E-Newsletter
Volume 8, Issue 7
July 2008
http://www.hospicefoundation.org
July 2008
In this issue:
- Focus on: Discussions about African-Americans and End-of-Life Decision Making
- Teleconference
- What's New @ HFA
- What's New @ HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog
Focus on: Discussions about African-Americans and End-of-Life Decision Making
Hospices and other organizations that care for people at the end of life are gaining an increasing awareness of the need to learn more about incorporating cultural competency into their care. This month HFA talked to two professionals who are combining their experiences to bring a greater awareness of hospice and end-of-life issues to the African-American community in Kansas City.
Gloria Thomas Anderson, MSW, is the author of The African-American Spiritual and Ethical Guide to End of Life Care.
Jeannette Ford, Community Relations Director for Kansas City Hospice, has developed a new program utilizing Thomas Anderson's booklet.
If you live in the Kansas City area and would like to receive a copy of this booklet or learn more about Kansas City Hospice's program, please contact Ms. Ford at jford@kchospice.org
If you live outside of Kansas City, you may request a booklet by emailing Ms. Thomas Anderson at gloria@hearttones.com
HFA is pleased to announce that a date has been announced for our 16th annual National Bereavement Teleconference! "Diversity and End-of-Life Care" will be broadcast Wednesday, April 29 from 1:30p-4p ET. The program will focus on ways of understanding diversity and how cultural histories, traditions and beliefs can affect end of life care Site Coordinator Registration will begin in late September.
The program will look at how diversity may influence end-of-life decision making, and the impact that culture may have at the time of death and during bereavement. One of the goals of the teleconference is to increase sensitivity by helping professionals acknowledge how their own cultural values and assumptions influence the delivery of care. The program will include a special examination of hospice care and diversity, including how hospices are reaching out to diverse groups and incorporating traditional practices and alternative therapies. The program will also discuss the challenges that may occur when culture considerations may cause ethical concerns or moral distress.
The panel for the program will feature the following distinguished professionals:
Samira K, Beckwith, LCSW, FACHE, President and CEO of Hope Hospice and Community Services
Kenneth J. Doka, Ph.D., MDiv., Professor of Gerontology, Graduate School of the College of New Rochelle Graduate School
Wanda H. Jenkins, MHS, Bereavement Services Manager, Vitas
Sandy Chen Stokes, RN, MSN, Executive Director, Chinese American Coalition for Compassionate Care
Richard Payne, M.D. Director, Institute on Care at the End of Life, Duke University
Paul Rosenblatt, Ph.D., Professor, College of Education & Human Development, University of Minnesota
Carlos Sandoval-Cros, Rev., St. Simon's Episcopal Church; M.D., psychiatrist, private practice
What's New @ HFA
HFA was mentioned in a recent Dear Abby column that addressed the support hospice can provide family members coping with grief. HFA has put together an introduction to hospice care for Dear Abby readers.
HFA has also received emails and phone calls requesting information about memory bears. A recent episode of Denise Richard's reality TV program showed the actress giving memory bears to her daughters. Learn more about memory bears here.
HFA's new book, Living with Grief: Children and Adolescents, is now available for purchase. The book is written by experts and examines child and adolescent grief in a variety of situations. Parental loss, sibling loss, and loss of a friend are each addressed in their own chapters. Other chapters examine play therapy, protocols for schools, use of the Internet as a coping tool, and the recommendations for reading for children and adolescents. Contributors include Kenneth Doka (editor), Charles Corr, Nancy Hogan, Bruce Jennings, Donna Schuurman and J. William Worden. See a full Table of Contents. The book is available for purchase online for $34.95.
HFA's recent National Bereavement Teleconference, Living With Grief: Children and Adolescents, is now available on DVD. These DVDs make excellent training tools as well as a resource for community organizations interested in helping children cope with grief and loss. The full-length program costs $25 and can be ordered here.
HFA has individual book chapters available for online purchase. The chapters are available in PDFs for a low cost of $2.50 each and may be downloaded to your home or office computer. We have put chapters from the last three books online: Living with Grief: Before and After the Death (2007); Living with Grief: Pain Management at the End of Life (2006), and Living with Grief: Ethical Dilemmas at the End of Life (2005). You can read descriptions of each chapter before purchasing.
What's New @ HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog
HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog gathers and disseminates information useful to professionals and consumers from a single destination. Our goals are to inform, offer support, and generate online comments about important end-of life issues. Read some of the blog's recent postings:
- Discussion of Changes to the Medicare Hospice Benefit
- Hospice Social Worker Addresses Ethical Questions
This newsletter is sent to more than 7,600 subscribers every month to keep you informed of what is happening in the fields of hospice, grief and bereavement, and caregiving, as well as what's new at HFA. Privacy Statement: In no case will we share e-mail addresses. See the full text of HFA's Privacy Policy.
This newsletter is published by Hospice Foundation of America
David Abrams, President; Amy Tucci, CEO
http://www.hospicefoundation.org
Board of Directors: Thomas Spulak, Chair; David Abrams; Thomas E. Bryant, MD, JD;
Myra MacPherson; Priscilla Perry, Vice Chair; Patricia Spulak
© Hospice Foundation of America 2008
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