Hospice Foundation of America
E-Newsletter
Volume 5, Issue 10
October 2005
http://www.hospicefoundation.org
In this issue:
- Message from David Abrams, President
- Focus on: Pain Management at the End of Life
- What's New @ HFA
- FYI
- Site Coordinator's Corner
Message from David Abrams, President
All of us have undoubtedly experienced some sort of physical pain associated with an illness or surgery. Pain is a very personal issue, and yet being able to control and manage pain is an essential need shared by all. The complex intricacies of pain management and illness are now even being argued before the US Supreme Court.
Hospice Foundation of America will examine these issues in our year-long focus on Pain Management at the End of Life, culminating in our 13th annual National Bereavement Teleconference on April 5. I hope that you will join the more than 100,000 people each spring that attend this educational event. Long-time attendees of our teleconferences may have noted a subtle shift in our subject matter from grief to more clinical topics. This shift has occurred in large part to participant comments. However, we will never abandon the issues of grief and loss as applied to end-of-life care; as is true in the hospice philosophy, the physical aspects of the end-of-life experience are deeply interconnected to the emotional and spiritual ones.
Focus on: Pain Management at the End of Life
HFA's 13th Annual National Bereavement Teleconference will focus on "Pain Management at the End of Life: Bridging the Gap Between Knowledge and Practice." The live-via-satellite program will be broadcast Wednesday, April 5, 2006 from 1:30pm to 4:00pm EDT. The teleconference will examine the gap between knowledge and application of effective pain control in the person with a terminal condition, including pharmaceutical, psycho-social, spiritual, and complementary aspects of pain management.
Hospice has always been a leader in providing excellent pain management. Jack D. Gordon, Chairman of the Hospice Foundation of America, discusses some of the societal barriers to good pain management, barriers that exist within the medical profession, and some of the policy issues surrounding this complex subject. [Note: Mr. Gordon served as Chairman and CEO of HFA until his death in 2005.]
As always, HFA has gathered some of the leading researchers and practitioners currently working in pain management to discuss these issues on the broadcast.
Also read the Learning Objectives for the program.
As a new addition this year, HFA is planning to offer CEs to pharmacists for the 2006 program. Approval information should be available by January.
The teleconference is sponsored in part by:
The Foundation for End-of-Life Care
Purdue Pharma
In cooperation with:
Adventist Communications Network
Association for Death Education and Counseling
National Association of Social Workers
HFA publishes a book each year in conjunction with the teleconference. This year's book will include a section on the experience of pain--its physiology, a look at the history of pain management, and the role that psychological and spiritual distress can play. The book will include chapters on assessing and managing pain, especially in specific populations such as children and persons with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. It will look at the hospice approach to pain, as well as the many societal and cultural barriers that exist to good pain management. The book will conclude with an examination of policy and ethical issues.
Hospice Foundation of America's 2004 program, Living With Grief®: Alzheimer’s Disease, won the 2005 Health & Medical Media Award in the competition's Alzheimer's & Dementia category. This year marked the 31st year of competition for the prestigious International Health & Medical Media Awards, also known as the FREDDIE Awards. The awards program, sponsored by medical publisher MediMedia, is open to organizations producing videos, films, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and Web sites addressing health and medical issues for both consumers and health care professionals. Other winning organizations include HBO and CNN.
We want to remind all our readers about the Journeys
Holiday Issue. This special issue of HFA's bereavement
newsletter is a nice way for you to let your clients,
donors or others in your community know you’re
thinking about them during the holiday season. The
2006 Holiday Issue features two new helpful articles:
Holiday Survival Strategies, by Judy Tatelbaum and Home for the Holidays, by Paul Irion.
HFA's special Journeys issues regularly sell for 25 cents per copy. We’re offering a special price of 20 cents per copy for orders of 25 or more of the Holiday Issue. Orders at this special price must be received by 12/16/2005.
The month of November will be an important time for
communities to honor and support those who work in
caregiving and end-of-life care. Visit the websites
below for more information about how your organization
can get involved in:
National Hospice Month
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
National Family Caregivers Month
The National Family Caregivers Association
World AIDS Day (December 1)
Registration to host a site for the 2006 teleconference has begun. A mailing has been sent to all past Site Coordinators. Registration is also available online.
Early Bird Special: The site registration fee is only $20 for Site Coordinators who register before January 15th!
If you work with other organizations at the local or national level that would be interested in this year's topic, please pass along information about the teleconference to them. If you belong to any professional associations whose members would benefit from knowing about the program, please contact us at telecon@hospicefoundation.org and we would be happy to share information with them.
This newsletter is sent to more than 6,400 subscribers on the 2nd Wednesday of 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. We encourage you to forward this e-newsletter to an interested colleague or friend. To subscribe, go to HFA's E-Newsletter sign-up page.
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
Jack D. Gordon, Chairman
David Abrams, President
http://www.hospicefoundation.org
Board of Directors: Thomas E. Bryant, MD, JD; Myra MacPherson; Priscilla Perry;
Patricia Spulak; Thomas Spulak
© Hospice Foundation of America 2005
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