Hospice Foundation of America E-Newsletter
February 2003
Hospice Foundation of America E-Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 2
February 2003
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Message from David Abrams, President
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Once again, an event that deeply impacts individual families has also brought grief to the nation and the world. What is it about a loss such as the Columbia that moves it into the realm of public tragedy? Although on the surface it certainly appears to be what we would call a public tragedy, what are the elements that make it so? HFA's 10th annual satellite video teleconference will examine this question in detail on April 30th with a panel of well-known experts, hosted again by Cokie Roberts. HFA offers the resources below to help support those in your community.
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Focus on: Coping With Public Tragedy
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As Marcia Lattanzi-Licht wrote in a recent article, "Supporting people in the aftermath of tragedies helps restore a measure of faith in each other. Support prompts us all to remember that we may not have control over violence in the world, but we can respond with integrity and compassion to heartbreaking situations." Hospices have always been leaders in offering this support, and we hope the resources below may be of help to prepare you and your community for these inevitable situations.
For more than nine months, HFA has been planning its annual bereavement teleconference, "Coping With Public Tragedy," which will be broadcast live on Wednesday, April 30. In conjunction with the teleconference and companion book, HFA has developed an extensive Resource List of organizations that can be helpful to communities and health care professionals dealing with tragedy and trauma.
HFA's teleconference will be seen in more than 2000 communities
across the U.S. and Canada. Locate a
site in your area.
If your community is not yet involved in the teleconference,
there is still plenty of time to register as a
downlink site. Hosting a teleconference is easy to do
and can be a great benefit to your organization and
your community. Learn more here or contact HFA at telecon@hospicefoundation.org
On a recent edition of "The Larry King Show" focusing on grief, a woman grieving the recent death of her child noted that she had been riveted to the coverage of the space shuttle explosion, and found herself more grief-stricken than she had during past public tragedies. The counselors on the program stated that, indeed, private grief can be exacerbated by public events. America's HealthTogether (AHT) has pioneered a national initiative that seeks to enhance primary care providers' awareness of mental health issues and strengthen their capacity to care for their patients' emotional and psychological needs. One project is an information-gathering survey for healthcare professionals who are dealing with these issues. To participate in the survey, go to http://www.survey2020.com/ . First-time visitors will need to register as a user. Follow the prompts to take the survey labeled, "Terrorism: Medical Community Perspectives." The password needed to access this specific survey is: health. To learn more about America's Health Together, go to their website at www.healthtogether.org.
A recent article in The Cincinnati Enquirer raised some interesting points about public tragedy and grief; Dr. Kenneth Doka, Senior Consultant to HFA, provided a useful counterpoint to the author's discomfort with public displays of grief.
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What's New@HFA
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Hospice College of America, a new subsidiary of HFA, has
added a number of board approvals for its home study
courses that cover select counselors, social workers
and nurses. Approved for three (3) contact hours of
continuing education, each of the seven home study
courses available from HCA contain a videotape of
HFA's annual teleconference broadcast and a copy of the
companion Living With Grief textbook. For more information
about the courses and to see the expanded list of
board approvals, go to:
www.hospicecollegeofamerica.org
HFA has begun holding workshops for its Florida clergy end-of-life training program. Over 75 clergy and lay ministers have already attended workshops; between February and April, there will be 19 free, one-day workshops in South Florida, Central Florida, the West Coast, and the Panhandle. Under contract to the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, and with the cooperation of the Health Council of South Florida, Hospice Foundation of America has developed curriculum and a trainer toolkit designed to offer information, tools and interventive techniques to clergy to assist them in counseling families in medical crisis. The clergy manual, which is Florida specific, will be available on the Website at the end of the program in July. If you wish to attend any of the sessions listed, contact the appropriate Health Council listed for registration.
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Site Coordinator's Corner
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Watch your e-mail and snail mail boxes for the satellite coordinates for the April teleconference! And remember--local community colleges, National Guard facilities, cable television stations, public television stations, municipal organizations, hotels and motels all may have satellite dishes that can access C-band or KU-band satellite feeds.
For those of you who subscribe to the Primedia satellite services, the program will be broadcast live on HSTN and LTCN. JCTN and VHA subscribers should check their program guide for more information. Note: GE-Tip TV will not be carrying the broadcast this year.
If you have questions or concerns about your registration, please call us at 800-854-3402 or send an email to telecon@hospicefoundation.org
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FYI
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Our January e-newsletter focused on Conversations about End-of-Life Care; here's another resource that might be of interest. The Hawaii Executive Office on Aging, with support of the Archstone Foundation, has developed a resource kit called "End-of-life care: An Aging Network Issue Advocacy Guide and Resource Kit."
The goal of the kit is to provide a "hands-on" guide that will help your organization learn about end-of-life issues and why they are important to the organization and clients, and learn how to initiate and support activities to improve end-of-life care for older adults. To learn more about the kit, go to http://www.kokuamau.org
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This newsletter is sent to more than 8,500 subscribers on the 2nd Wednesday of 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. We encourage you to forward this e-newsletter to an interested colleague or
friend.
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This newsletter is published by Hospice Foundation of America
Jack D. Gordon, Chairman
David Abrams, President http://www.hospicefoundation.org
© Hospice Foundation of America 2003
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