HFA's E-Newsletter - April 2010
Volume 10, Issue 4
In this issue:
- Message from Amy Tucci, President and CEO
- Focus on: National Healthcare Decisions Day
- 2010 Teleconference News
- HFA Webinar Series on Grieving Children and Adolescents
- What's New @ HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog
- Upcoming Conferences and Educational Opportunities
Message from Amy Tucci, President and CEO
As many of you who participated in the March teleconference know, we were beset by technical problems due to a major internet hub going down just around the beginning of the program. The effects of this were immense and beyond our control. Moving ahead, HFA is examining all options to bring the teleconference to its viewers using methods that protect audiences from technical problems that affect the quality of our programming. While we would like to preserve the live nature of the teleconference, we feel that it is more important to guarantee the reception of the program and believe that uninterrupted learning and program content should be our priorities. Stay tuned for an announcement soon about plans for next year's teleconference, Spirituality at the End of Life, scheduled for April 13, 2011.
On this Wednesday, April 14, HFA's webinar will feature two outstanding experts, Dr. William Worden and Dr. Irwin Sandler, discussing findings from research focusing on bereaved children and adolescents. Read an interview with Dr. Worden; more information about the webinar can be found below.
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Focus On: National Healthcare Decisions Day
A recent study appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine examines whether patients with advance directives who lacked the capacity to make decisions received their preferred care. Researchers reviewed 3,746 deaths and found that 67.6% had advance directives in place. Those instructions were almost always carried out by decision-making surrogates. From the Los Angeles Times: "This is a big change from the early '90s, when studies reported that only about 20% of people had advance directives," said Dr. Maria J. Silveira, a clinical scientist at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. "I think it shows the public has bought into this and thinks it's important."
The study is among the first to look at how well advance directives work. Most common among such documents are living wills and durable powers of attorney. The former specifies the types of medical treatment desired should an individual become incapacitated; the second gives someone else the legal authority to make decisions for the patient.
April 16, 2010 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. The National Healthcare Decisions Day Initiative is a collaborative effort of national, state and community organizations committed to ensuring that all adults with decision-making capacity in the United States have the information and opportunity to communicate and document their healthcare decisions. Take time to complete your advance directives and let your family know about your end-of-life care wishes. See HFA's website for information on Advance Care Planning. It matters.
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2010 Teleconference News
Bonus Package Available: Individuals and organizations can purchase a Cancer and End-of-Life Care teleconference bonus package that includes a full-length DVD and access to the on-demand streaming video. Attendees can receive continuing education credits for a $25 fee. Learn more about this option here.
HFA's newest book, Cancer and End-of-Life Care, is now available to the public. If you coordinated a site for the 2010 broadcast, you can purchase the book at a discounted price through May 28 through the registration site.
View the table of contents.
Webinar Series on Grieving Children and Adolescents
Almost 875,000 children and adolescents have experienced the death of a parent, and over 1.8 million children are dealing with the loss of a sibling. HFA's Webinar Series will discuss research and interventions to help young people dealing with these losses, as well as the myriad of other losses they may experience. HFA's live online webinar series includes:
- Bereaved Children and Adolescents: Lessons from Research on Wednesday, April 14. Panelists will include J. William Worden, Co-Principal Investigator for the Harvard Child Bereavement Study and Irwin N. Sandler, Researcher on the Family Bereavement Program, Arizona State University [NOTE: Live program registration is now closed. You can still register for the series and the on-demand program.]
- Grieving Children and Adolescents: The Role of Internet Support on Tuesday, June 15. Panelists will include Pamela Gabbay of the Mourning Star Center and National Alliance of Grieving Children and Carla Sofka, associate professor of social work at Siena College in New York, who has written extensively on grieving youth and technology.
(note: The live webinars will take place from 1pm-2:30pm ET.)
The archived version HFA's most recent webinar, Bereavement Camps for Kids: Benefits and Challenges, is now available on-demand.
Register for the series here. The Organization Registration Fee for the three-part series is $250, which allows access to both the live webcast and an archived online program for one year past the live webinar, with unlimited complimentary CEs (1.5 hours) available for a wide range of professions. If purchased separately, the Organization Fee is $100 per program. Individuals may register for each webinar for $35 and 1.5 hours of CE credit is included for the registered individual. To learn more about this exciting educational offering, contact HFA at 800-854-3402 or see the website.
HFA is grateful to the support of The Moyer Foundation for its sponsorship of this series. The Moyer Foundation offers encouragement, comfort and support to children in distress; the Foundation created and funds Camp Erin, the largest network of bereavement camps in the country for children and teens who are grieving a significant loss.
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:
- Balancing Realism and Hope in Caring for Cancer Patients
- In Talk of Cancer, Where is Talk of End-of-Life Care?
- Virtual Grief: The Role of Internet Support
- Study on Pediatric End-of-Life Care Raises Big Headlines
Subscribe to the Hospice and Caregiving blog feed.
Upcoming Conferences and Educational Opportunities
Through thought-provoking case studies and in-depth presentations, health care professionals will discuss both hospice and palliative care as they relate to the delivery of care, outcomes, accountability and cost-effectiveness at the World Congress 2nd Annual Leadership Summit on End of Life Care. The two-day summit will convene employers and senior-level executives from health plans and health systems, as well as hospice and other provide groups, to discuss the critical issues surrounding the delivery of end of life care. The World Congress 2nd Annual Leadership Summit on End of Life Care will be held June 24 and 25 in Chicago.
The Moyer Foundation is holding it first 2010 National Bereavement Camp Conference on June 26 in Cleveland, Ohio. The conference will provide an overall view of bereavement camp structures and best practices across the country by creating a forum of exchange, learning and collaboration through sharing of timely clinical information, programs, advances in research and successful ideas for new or existing bereavement camps. The conference will take place in conjunction with the National Alliance on Grieving Children Symposium, so there are special CEU pricing levels for NAGC attendees. Learn more about this exciting new conference and register here. Please contact Lynette Moore at lynette@moyerfoundation.org with any questions.
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