HFA's E-Newsletter - March 2012
Volume 12, Issue 3
In this issue:
- Dear E-News Subscriber
- Focus on: Interview with Ira Byock
- Early Registration Deadline Approaching!
- Thank You HFA Sponsors
- Self-Study Available for Award-wining Spirituality and End-of-Life Care Program
- What's New @ HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog
Dear E-News Subscriber:
This week HFA's newest book, End-of-Life Ethics, went to press. This is the second book on ethics HFA has published in less than 10 years. Our last book about ethics, Ethics and End-of-Life Care, published in 2005, sold out last year. Our newest book takes a fresh case-study approach, and guides readers through the outcomes of each case. The chapters, written by physicians, ethicists, and other key professionals, include cases rich in real-life context. Not every case has a happy ending, but they each come with their own lessons of how better communication, practice and knowledge could have contributed to different outcomes. It was a pleasure working on this book with fellow editors Ken Doka, Chuck Corr, and Bruce Jennings, and with managing editor Lisa Veglahn. End-of-Life Ethics is available for pre-order now and will be shipped just before April 19 when our 2.5 hour End-of-Life Ethics video program is released. As always, you can benefit from the book even if you don't participate in the program, but I recommend taking advantage of both wonderful opportunities. There is always more to learn about ethical decision-making and the roles that care professionals, families, and institutions inevitably play in ethical outcomes.
In April, advertising space will be available in this monthly e-news publication for the first time. Banner advertisements will allow companies and organizations to get in front of more than 8,000 health care professionals and policymakers with an interest in hospice and palliative care, bereavement services and other related topics. In addition, we'll soon begin providing limited advertising space in Journeys: A Newsletter to Help in Bereavement, which reaches 60,000 individuals each month. Stay tuned for updates about these new opportunities, or contact HFA's Catherine Campbell for more information.
Amy Tucci, President and CEO
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Focus on: New Book on End-of-Life Ethics
What's the best way to talk with a patient? What are appropriate boundaries when it comes to patient care? How do palliative care and hospice work together? What's right - and wrong - about our approach to end-of-life care in the United States?
On Monday, March 12, HFA will release a one-hour audio interview with Ira Byock, MD, a leader in end-of-life care. The interview will be available online and for download. This is our first Professionally Speaking interview, a series of informative and sometimes provocative conversations meant to stimulate thought and discussion among the medical and policy communities.
Dr. Byock has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978. He is a founder of a hospice home care program in Fresno, California, a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and has published numerous articles on the ethics and practice of hospice, palliative and end-of-life care. Byock's most recent book, The Best Care Possible, will be available soon.
HFA's Medical Consultant Dr. Hank Willner, initially certified in Family Practice in 1978, is Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Practice both at Georgetown University Medical School and the Medical College of Virginia, a hospice medical director, and palliative medicine physician consultant. Check out HFA's website for this interview.Early Registration Deadline Approaching!
"Debbie's family had consistently made medical decisions with the goal of ensuring that Debbie maintained a high quality of life... until now." -from End-of-Life Ethics case study.
See and hear more case studies for viewers to ponder along with our expert, in-studio panel, and hear from those directly involved in historic legal cases like Quinlan, Cruzan and Schiavo, during HFA's annual Living With Grief® program End-of-Life Ethics. Watch the End-of-Life Ethics Sneak Peek.
Registered sites have flexibility to show the program at a time convenient for their organization. CE certificates (three hours) are available for one year following the DVD release date. Site registration is only $150, but act fast; registration increases to $200 starting March 15, 2012. Register Today.
When registering, don't forget to order companion books for your audience! End-of-Life Ethics: A Case Study Approach, is written by ethicists and clinicians and provides a rich guide to ethical decision making using case studies that explore current ethical issues in depth. The book examines end-of-life ethics in innovative ways and includes chapters by physicians, ethicists, and other noted scholars. Chapters include challenging cases involving issues of surrogacy; decision making when the patient is a child or adolescent; conflict between health care professionals and family; and palliative sedation. While each case is unique, each chapter shares the perspective that ethics continue to evolve.
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HFA is grateful to the Foundation for End of Life Care and Dignity Memorial Funeral Providers for underwriting End-of-Life Ethics. Additional support comes from Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors, LLC; Collaborative for Palliative Care; Columbus Properties; Hospice Choices; and Jewish Home Life Care.
HFA wishes to thank the following organizations for their in-kind support of the program: Aging with Dignity; National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization; Washington Radiology Associates, PC; and The YGS Group.
Self-Study Available for Award-wining Spirituality and End-of-Life Care Program
Spirituality and End-of-Life Care, winner of a Telly Award, is a 2.5 hour video produced in 2011 as part of HFA's Living with Grief® educational series. The program features interviews with hospice professionals working with patients at the end of life, as well as moving vignettes with individuals facing their own death or the death of a loved one. "The willingness of the people we interviewed to share their thoughts on such a deeply personal subject as spirituality, some of whom faced the end of their lives at that time, truly made the program special," said Spencer Levine, vice president for programs at HFA. Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards honor outstanding TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions. The HFA program won in the Religion and Spirituality category.
Spirituality and End-of-Life Care is available on DVD. Continuing education credits are now available through April 13, 2013 for a range of professional boards. Spirituality and End-of-Life Care is now available as a self-study course for individuals as well. We are pleased to make this important topic a part of our professional development efforts. The program discusses the differences and relationship between spirituality and religion, while also addressing spirituality during illness, death and grief; spiritual assessment and empowerment, and life review.
This self-study course ($100) has been approved for three (3) basic contact hours. Included with your self-study packet is a full-length DVD (approximately 2.5 hours), companion book, program guide (with program information), and detailed instructions. Continuing education credits (3 hours) are included in the cost of registration.
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:
- Quality Measures of Palliative and End-of-Life Care Endorsed by Panel
- Challenges of Family Caregiving
- What Culture Teaches Us About Grief
- Terminally-ill Cancer Patients Discuss End-of-Life Plans with Physicians, Often Late
- The Joint Commission Awards First Advanced Certifications for Palliative Care
Subscribe to the Hospice and Caregiving blog feed and follow us on Twitter.
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 2012
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