HFA's E-Newsletter - March 2011

Volume 11, Issue 3

In this issue:  

Message from Amy Tucci, President and CEO

If you're registered as a site coordinator or are planning to attend HFA's Living with Grief®: Spirituality and End of Life Care program, you will not be disappointed. The program features thoughtful discussions and practical suggestions from our expert panel.
You can see a sneak peek of the 2011 program on our website. The program will be available at sites nationwide beginning April 13. Don't forget to register or find a site to attend. You can find a site through our national directory.

In addition to HFA's soon to be released spring program, HFA will present a live, interactive program this fall, "Beyond Kübler-Ross: New Perspectives on Death, Dying and Grief." Stay tuned for a program date, transmission information and registration details.

As many of you know, HFA publishes a book each year that accompanies its Living with Grief® Program. Excerpts and adaptations of this year's book will be published by the Huffington Post. Already, an adaptation of Ken Doka's chapter has been published by the online publication and has received many comments and generated great discussion. HFA is grateful for the Huffington Post's interest in this subject and we love the way it has engaged the public in the conversation around spirituality and end-of-life care.  

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Focus on: Spiritual Needs of the Dying 

Do individuals become more religious as they die? This question has often been debated among academics who study death. Such debate avoids the central issue that the dying process raises profound spiritual concerns of meaning and connection for individuals. Whether those who are dying reconnect, review, or renew prior religious beliefs -- or are even open to new religious experiences -- they are likely to engage in some form of spiritual searching. Read More.

An important process that many hospice and end-of-life professionals utilize is the process of Spiritual Assessment. There are useful tools for spiritual assessment, including FICA, SPIRIT, and HOPE, but professionals always remember that while standardized forms can offer essential documentation, it is important that spiritual assessment goes beyond simple checklists.

One tool is the FICA Spiritual History Tool, developed by Dr. Christina Puchalski and a group of primary care physicians, to help physicians and other healthcare professionals address spiritual issues with patients. The FICA (Faith and Belief, Importance, Community, and Address in Care) tool serves as a guide for conversations in the clinical setting. Other spiritual assessment tools include SPIRIT (Spiritual belief system, Personal spirituality, Integration with a spiritual community, Ritualized practice and restrictions, Implications for medical care, Terminal event planning) (Maugans 1997), and HOPE (Sources of Hope, Organized religion, Personal spirituality and practices, Effects on medical care and end-of-life issues)(Anandarajah and Hight 2001).

Those who are having spiritual difficulties should be referred to a board-certified chaplain for a full spiritual assessment. Spiritual Assessments should appraise spiritual and religious beliefs that might affect health care decision-making, spiritual needs or concerns, meaning making, and connections to community and spiritual resources. Learn more about board-certified chaplains.

Some organizations whose work focuses on the intersection between spirituality and the end of life include:

As part of HFA's annual educational program focusing on these issues, HFA will offer three live webinars this spring that will address aspects of spirituality at life's end in greater depth. Webinars will be accessible to registrants for a year after their live air dates.

On the programs, Ken Doka and other experts will look at spiritual meaning making at the end of life, utilizing techniques such as Reminiscence and Life Review, as well as other meaning-making approaches such as Dignity Enhancement Therapies and Living Eulogies. Another program will look more closely at how to assist clients coping with spiritual distress at the end of life.

These programs can be added on as a "Bonus Package" to a Registration for the annual educational program, available on April 13. The webinars are a great way for organizations to offer additional programming for staff and community members on these important issues. Free CE's for professionals are included, for the first week after each start date, and are only $5/participant after that date. Individual registrations for the webinars will be available in late April. Learn more.

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It's Not Too Late to Host a Site for Spirituality and End-of-Life Care 

Available on DVD, Spirituality and End-of-Life Care can be shown according to your schedule beginning on April 13, 2011. To receive materials via mail before April 13, please register before April 1st .

Registration includes:

  • one full-length DVD (2.5 hours)
  • a detailed Site Coordinator's Manual
  • 50 printed Program Guides (with a tip & resource sheet included)
  • access to a media kit to help you publicize the event in your area
  • additional useful program materials
  • a complimentary review copy of the 2011 Spirituality and End-of-Life Care book 

Spirituality and End-of-Life Care will discuss the differences and relationship between spirituality and religion, while also addressing spirituality during illness, death and grief; spiritual assessment and empowerment, and life review. Watch a sneak peek. The program will feature a distinguished panel of experts, including:

  • Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv, Professor of Gerontology at The College of New Rochelle
  • Gary S. Fink, DMin, Chaplain and Dementia Project Coordinator at Montgomery Hospice, and Adjunct Faculty at Hood College Graduate School
  • Carolyn Jacobs, PhD, MSW, Dean and Elizabeth Marting Treuhaft Professor at Smith College, School for Social Work
  • Betty Kramer, PhD, MSSW, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Social Work
  • Reinette Powers Murray, MSN, CNS, RN, Owner, The Peaceful Journey End-of-Life Process program
  • Martha Rutland, DMin, BCC, ACPE, Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at VITAS Innovative Hospice Care

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Professional Webinar on LGBT Community and EOL Care on April 20

Aging and death don't discriminate. Whether someone is heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, everyone grows older. The Hospice Foundation of America will host a live webinar on April 20, "Supporting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community through Illness, Death and Grief," from 1-2pm ET. This live webinar will feature Kimberly Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, of George Washington University, who will discuss the challenges faced by this community and how organizations can better serve older LGBT adults and their loved ones. Kenneth Doka, PhD, MDiv, will discuss the psychosocial issues faced by this community. Continuing Education credits are available for a wide range of professionals including nurses and social workers.

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Bonus Features for Living with Grief® 2011

HFA's Bonus Package option includes:

  • Registration for Spirituality and End-of-Life Care, including all materials as outlined earlier
  • Access to three additional webinar programs, focusing on Spiritual Meaning-Making at the End of Life and Assisting Clients Coping with Spiritual Distress at the End of Life. Programs will be aired on May 11, June 8 and July 13, from 1-2:30pm ET. The programs will be archived for a year after the original live air dates.
  • Free CE credits for professionals (for the webinar series only) for the first week after each live start date, and are only $5/participant after that date.

An option for your audience to speak with several panel members who will be available by telephone on April 13. A few spaces remain to sign up and allow your organization to spend up to an hour with three of Hospice Foundation of America's Spirituality and End-of-Life Care panel members! Use this opportunity for your local discussion (required for CE credit), or simply use this as an opportunity to learn more from the experts, share reactions with other sites, and have your audience questions answered. Approximately 12 sites will be on each conference call. You must be registered for the program to request a slot; if demand exceeds available slots, HFA will consider adding additional call-in times. For more info, contact Kristen Baker, Manager of Continuing Education at kbaker@hospicefoundation.org, or contact us at 800-854-3402. Space is limited, so reserve your time today

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Hospice Information Center

Hospice Foundation of America (HFA)'s Hospice Information Center offers a range of online resources for families, friends and professionals. This centralized resource is funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and can be found on HFA's website at http://www.hospicefoundation.org/infocenter.

Volunteers are an essential part of the hospice team, providing support to patients and families, and administrative support to hospice organizations. HFA has developed "Time...to Help Others," an engaging video that highlights the important role that volunteers play. The video includes real stories from hospice volunteers talking about what volunteering means to them, and gives some basic information for those who might be interested in sharing their time and talents with a local hospice. A free webinar about Recruiting and Retaining Hospice Volunteers will be added to the Hospice Information Center later this month.

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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 most recent postings:

Subscribe to the Hospice and Caregiving blog feed and follow us on Twitter.

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Upcoming Conferences and Educational Opportunities

HFA is pleased to partner with TAPS on an upcoming webinar focusing on Military Families and Disenfranchised Grief. The program, on March 24, will feature Kenneth J. Doka, Senior Consultant to HFA. The program is intended for all professional caregivers providing services to military service members, military families, survivors grieving the death of a military service member, as well as those working in the community providing care to the bereaved. All active duty military personnel, Department of Veterans Affairs personnel, and Give-An-Hour Volunteers are invited to attend free of charge; CEUs will be available for a small fee.

The University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse will hold its annual International Death, Grief and Bereavement Conference on June 6-8, 2011, focusing on Men and Grief. Conference topics will include: Spousal loss/loss of child;; bereavement-like losses (e.g. job, identity, marriage etc); Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the war; and gender differences and/or similarities in grieving . For more information, go to www.uwlax.edu/conted/dgb

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This newsletter is sent to over 8,000 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
Amy Tucci, President and CEO
http://www.hospicefoundation.org
© Hospice Foundation of America 2011

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