HFA's E-Newsletter - July 2012

Volume 12, Issue 7

In this issue:  

• Dear E-News Subscriber
• Focus on: Understanding Different Styles of Grief
• Grief and Healing Artwork Contest
• New Perspectives on ANH
• What's New @ HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog

Dear E-News Subscriber:

Registration is now open for our upcoming New Perspectives program focusing on Artificial Nutrition and Hydration at the End of Life. This two-hour continuing education program will be available on DVD starting October 3 and does not require a local panel discussion. If you will be attending, you can help shape the program by sending us your questions about ANH. Email me by Wednesday, July 18 at atucci@hospicefoundation.org, and we'll have our moderator, Frank Sesno, ask the expert panel your question. Please indicate if we can identify you by name, and include your position and place of work.

Judging from the discussion panelists had at their recent planning meeting for the program, this New Perspectives program will be important for all of those working in end-of-life care. Identified as one of the most difficult of issues for clinicians, patients, families and surrogates, we'll help your organization understand the medical and nursing benefits and burdens of ANH, as well as the communication, social, and cultural hurdles that make ANH worth talking about. In preparation for this program, we've interviewed Joan Teno, MD, who brings us up to date and shares her perspectives about her important recent research on feeding tubes and ANH. Make sure to order your companion books for this program, available to site coordinators at half the list price. Written by leading experts, the book contains case studies on a range of ethical issues, including ANH.

Also, make sure to sign up for our new five-part webinar series on grief with Ken Doka, PhD, MDiv. Starting in August, Dr. Doka and a special guest will take on important topics including Beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Women Grieve, Loss of an Adult Child, and Helping Children Cope with Their Dying or with the Death of Loved Ones. For more information see here. 

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Focus on: Understanding Different Styles of Grief

Many believe that if a grieving person does not show or share sadness or express other emotions that the person is not in touch with, or is suppressing, grief. This misconception can lead to tension in families, where one family member may feel that another is not truly affected by the loss. Professionals may also misunderstand certain grief reactions and encourage grievers to express feelings in a way that is not consistent with that person's coping mechanisms. In fact, current research continues to show that grief reactions are highly individual and varied. Both men and women may express their grief in what is now known as more instrumental ways, showing grief in more cognitive or active manifestations. While often associated with gender (men don't cry, women do), these instrumental expressions of grief are more related to individual pathways of grieving. HFA webinars are a convenient way to bring the knowledge and expertise of these renowned experts directly to your staff and professional community. Registration includes the live program, access online for a full year, and unlimited CEs for a wide range of professionals. Purchase the series this month only for a one-time discounted price.  

Kenneth J. Doka and Terry Martin have written groundbreaking work on this subject. Dr. Doka and Dr. Martin co-authored the groundbreaking work, Men Don't Cry...Women Do: Transcending Gender Stereotypes of Grief in 2000, followed by a revised edition, Grieving Beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Women Mourn, in 2010. They will participate in the first of a series of HFA webinars this fall that will focus on specific aspects of grief.

Beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Women Grieve will take place live online on Tuesday, August 21 from noon-1:30pm ET. The discussion will challenge professionals to move beyond affect to explore the many ways that individuals cope with loss, and offer specific interventive strategies that are effective with different patterns of grief.

Other program topics in the series include:

• Anticipatory Mourning: What We Know, How We Can Help with Charles Corr, PhD
• The Death of an Adult Child: Helping Families Cope with Patricia Loder
• Helping Children Cope with Their Own Dying or with the Death of a Loved One withSherry Schachter, PhD, FT  
• Death of a Spouse or Partner: Current Research, New Strategies with Dale Lund, PhD

Register today.

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Grief and Healing Artwork Contest 

Design the cover!

Hospice Foundation of America will be accepting photographs and/or artwork from hospices nationwide. HFA will choose one photograph to be displayed as a cover image for our Journeys book. Several other pieces of photographs and/or artwork will also be chosen to be displayed on our website at www.hospicefoundation.org/journeyscover, and may also be used inside the Journeys book, or to be displayed in other HFA-related materials.

See here for submission guidelines.

The deadline for HFA to receive images is August 1, 2012.

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New Perspectives on Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

Artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) can be a contentious issue in hospice, palliative care, and long-term care and has been identified as one of the most common ethical dilemmas to arise in end-of-life care. Our New Perspectives experts will discuss the complexities of ANH, its benefits and its burdens. In addition, they will address, and take questions from, program participants about the need for good communication with families, patients, and staff who may not always grasp the clinical, ethical, legal, cultural and spiritual considerations of this medical treatment.

We are especially pleased to be joined by experts whose work bridges this critical gap between research and practice:

• Terry Altilio, LCSW, ACSW,  social work coordinator in the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center;
• Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv, Professor of Gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle and Senior Consultant to the Hospice Foundation of America;
• Rabbi Gary S. Fink, DMin, MAHL, Director of Spiritual Care at Montgomery Hospice;
• Thomas E. Finucane, MD,  Professor of Medicine at the John Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, the JHU Bioethics Institute, and part of JHU'S Core Faculty of the Biology of Healthy Aging Program;
• JoAnne Reifsnyder, PhD, APRN,  Chief Nursing Officer for Genesis HealthCare, LLC, where she is leading an interdisciplinary initiative to improve palliative and end of life care capabilities across 230 skilled nursing and long-term care facilities;

The program will also feature an interview with Joan Teno, MD, MS. Dr. Teno is Professor of Health Services Policy and Practice and Associate Director of the Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research. The program will be moderated again by Frank Sesno, Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University. The program will also include interviews with families and patients, ensuring that the personal side of this medical treatment issue is fully explored and understood.

The program will be available on DVD in October, but register now to take advantage of the planning and support resources that HFA offers.

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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:

• California Health Report Highlights End-of-Life Ethics Program
• Father's Day, Without Dad
• A Shocking End?
• Health Care Innovation Awards Announced

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

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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 2012

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