HFA's E-Newsletter - September 2011

Volume 11, Issue 9

In this issue:  

• Message from Amy Tucci, President and CEO
• Focus on: Interview with Elizabeth Clark
• New Lunch 'n Learn Series for Professionals
• Early Registration Deadline Ends Soon!
• What's New @ HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog
• Upcoming Conferences and Educational Opportunities  

Message from Amy Tucci, President and CEO

Discounted registration for Beyond Kübler Ross: New Perspectives on Death, Dying and Grief is nearing its deadline. Make sure to take advantage of the early registration fees for this new fall program developed and produced by HFA. Get more information about registering for the program here.

This program is made possible in part by HFA Friends Dignity Memorial Funeral Providers and The Foundation for End-of-Life Care, presented in cooperation with the Association for Death Education and Counseling, The Compassionate Friends, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and The YGS Group. This month's e-news features an insightful interview with Dr. Elizabeth Clark, Executive Director of NASW. Dr. Clark will serve as a panelist for HFA's new fall program; in the interview, Clark talks about Kübler-Ross's influence on her own decision to pursue social work.

HFA is also pleased to announce a fresh approach to a new set of one-hour educational programs, our "Lunch 'n Learn" series. Each Lunch 'n Learn will feature a panel of experienced professionals offering their own expertise on the topic as well as engaging in a discussion with another panelist and the moderator. If you logon for the live version of the program, you'll be able to see the panelists talking and presenting on screen and you'll also have the opportunity to email them questions after their presentations during the program's Q & A session. We think HFA's Lunch 'n Learns will be a terrific way for hospices and other healthcare organizations to reach out to both professional communities and communities at large. Please see below for more info.

We're also pleased to share some news about HFA staff members and consultants, who are often invited by other groups to share their experience and expertise. HFA's senior bereavement consultant, Ken Doka PhD, MDiv, will serve as a guest faculty member at the 15th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Supportive Care, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, sponsored by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Phil Carpenter, HFA Bereavement Specialist, will be serving on two panels in the next few months. He'll be part of a panel on the topic of Shared Voices: Mourning through the Lens of Various Faith Traditions at Sibley Memorial Hospital in October, and also a presenter at the Carlos F. Gomez Quality of Life for the Children Conference on pediatric palliative care in November.                    

Karyn Walsh, LCSW, HFA Social Worker, will be serving on the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Patient Services Committee for their National Office. The mission of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS aims to give all people with blood cancer--at every stage of their journey--access to the information and services they need to fight and manage their disease.

If your organization is ever in need of a speaker or panelist, please contact HFA to see how we can help.

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Focus on: Interview with Elizabeth Clark, NASW 

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HFA's new "Lunch 'n Learn" programs begin October 5, from 1pm-2pm ET. Each program will examine a different topic to meet the diverse need of hospices and communities around the country. Available for up to a year after its initial live air date, the cost is $85 per program for hospice organizations and $35 per program for individuals, and that registration price means unlimited access for a full year from the live air date. CEs for a wide range of professionals will be available for $10/person. Register now to make sure you don't miss out on these timely and helpful topics! The program in October will focus on "The Hospice Appropriate Patient." The program goes beyond the older concepts of the typical hospice patient to explore a wider array of hospice appropriate diagnoses and indicators. Additionally, the program will discuss barriers to hospice care and the ways in which a hospice and the surrounding community can work together to overcome them. Using this information, hospices and communities will be able to identify and serve more patients facing life-threatening diagnoses and prognoses. Panelists are Hank Willner, MD and Jennifer Carlson, RN, CHPN.

Upcoming program topics will include: "Talking with a Dying Patient and Their Family"; "Grieving Children: How You Can Help;" and "Caregiver Burnout/Compassion Fatigue: How It Affects Families and Professionals - and How to Beat It."

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Registration Now Open for HFA Programs

Registration is now open for Hospice Foundation of America's first New Perspectives program -- Beyond Kübler-Ross: New Perspectives on Death, Dying and Grief. Available only on DVD, the program can be shown according to your schedule beginning on November 10, 2011. Continuing education credits (2.5 CEs) are available for an entire year for your audience (November 10, 2011 until November 10, 2012).

HFA's spring program will focus on Ethics and End-of-Life Care. Site Coordinators can streamline the process, saving time and money, by registering for both programs.

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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:

• Dealing with 9/11 - Ten Years Later
• HFA Answers CMS Call for Comments
• Palliative Care Summit Urges Integration

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

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Upcoming Conferences and Educational Opportunities

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) will host its 13th Annual International Survivors of Suicide Day, its Annual Healing Program for Bereavement After Suicide, on Saturday, November 19. AFSP provides a free 90-minute educational and healing broadcast on DVD, featuring real survivors of suicide loss. Individuals, organizations, or schools can offer this program by hosting a local conference site. This is an opportunity to offer a high-quality program directly to community members at little or no cost. Learn how at www.afsp.org/survivorconference. Not able to host a conference site? Let survivors of suicide loss in your area know that they can sign up at www.afsp.org/survivorday to watch online from their home computer on November 19th and participate in a live online chat immediately afterwards. Questions? Email survivingsuicideloss@afsp.org

This year, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) celebrates 175 years of information and scientific innovation that have improved public health. To commemorate this extraordinary milestone, the Friends of the National Library of Medicine (FNLM) are hosting an Anniversary and Awards Gala Dinner on Thursday, November 3, 2011, in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. For more information, go to www.nlm.gov

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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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