Hospice Foundation of America
E-Newsletter
Volume 8, Issue 2
February 2008
http://www.hospicefoundation.org
February 2008
In this issue:
- Message from David Abrams, President
- Focus on: Teleconference Partners and Friends
- Winner Selected for HFA’s New Book
- What's New @ HFA
- What's New @ HFA's Hospice and Caregiving Blog
- Living With Grief: Children and Adolescents
- Living with Grief Book Chapters Now Available Online
- Host a Downlink Site!
- Upcoming Conferences and Educational Opportunities
Message from David Abrams, President
The Hospice Foundation of America is pleased to announce a new partnership with AGIS (www.agis.com), an online community and information resource for family caregivers. AGIS works hand-in-hand with leading organizations, such as HFA, to deliver the web’s premier resource for eldercare information. The AGIS site includes long term care resources, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia information, legal and financial preparation tips, checklists, suggestions for new caregivers and much more. We hope this new resource will provide needed assistance that will help those struggling during this emotionally challenging time.
We hope you’re planning to join us on April 16 for our 15th annual National Bereavement Teleconference, Living With Grief®: Children and Adolescents. If you are interested in attending but cannot host a site, we urge you to go to our website to find a site near you.
The 2008 teleconference panelists have selected a winner for our Book Cover Art, choosing “Send My Love,” by Brittany Smith from Circle of Love Center for Grieving Children at LifePath Hospice in Tampa, Florida. See below for more information about our winner, and a link to view many of the powerful pieces of artwork that were submitted.
Focus on: Teleconference Partners and Sponsors
Hospice Foundation of America is grateful to the following organizations who are partnering with us to present our 15th annual National Bereavement Teleconference.
Sponsored by:
The Foundation for End-of-Life Care
The Foundation for End-of-Life Care, a not-for-profit organization established by VITAS Healthcare Corporation, was created to improve end-of-life care for individual patients and their families, while supporting fundamental societal change.
In Cooperation with:
The Adventist Communications Network
ACN is the satellite media distribution service for the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. If you need to locate a satellite facility in your area to host the teleconference, call the Adventist Communication Network: they will help you contact your local Seventh Day Adventist Church (1-800-226-1119), which makes its facilities available at no charge.
The Association for Death Education and Counseling
The Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) is one of the oldest interdisciplinary organizations in the field of dying, death and bereavement. Its nearly 2,000 members include a wide array of mental and medical health personnel, educators, clergy, funeral directors and volunteers. ADEC offers numerous educational opportunities through its annual conference, courses and workshops, its certification program, and via its acclaimed newsletter, The Forum.
The Compassionate Friends
The Compassionate Friends is a national nonprofit, self-help support organization that offers friendship, understanding, and hope to bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. Chapters across the country provide monthly meetings, phone contacts, lending libraries and a local newsletter. The national organization provides newsletters, distributes grief-related materials, and answers requests for referrals and information.
The National Association of Social Workers
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with 150,000 members. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Employee Education System
The VA is committed to providing its employees with the training and education they need to provide outstanding service to veterans and other eligible customers.
Winner Selected for HFA’s New Book
Each year, in conjunction with its national bereavement video teleconference, Hospice Foundation of America publishes a companion book written by noted authorities in the field of young people and bereavement. For the 2008 Living With Grief: Children and Adolescents book, HFA asked for artwork submissions from children and adolescents, who were served by grief programs in hospices, schools, and art therapy groups nationwide.
The 2008 teleconference panelists made the final determination, choosing “Send My Love,” by Brittany Smith from Circle of Love Center for Grieving Children at LifePath Hospice in Tampa, Florida. Brittany, 13, began attending the Circle of Love Center for Grieving Children in 2005 after the sudden death of her mother. Brittany’s artwork emerged as she thought about her mother and the annual camp at Circle of Love Center, where she released a balloon with a message attached to it. The center offers support groups for children and their families after the loss of a loved one. Brittany and the Circle of Love Center will each receive honoraria from HFA in recognition of their work.
A close runner-up, “No Child Should Grieve Alone,” was a combination of five paintings by both children and adolescents from The Solace Tree – Child and Adolescent Center for Grief and Loss, in Reno, Nevada. These children use creative art to express their feelings and share with peers, honor memories and begin a new relationship in a safe and supportive environment with the person who has died.
We wish to thank all of those who sent us these wonderful works. HFA plans to use more of the art that we received during the teleconference program, so watch for these in the live broadcast. You may also view the winning artwork and all the submissions we received for this year’s cover on our website.
HFA is pleased to announce a new and important partnership. AGIS (www.agis.com), a premier online community and information resource for family caregivers, has partnered with the Hospice Foundation of America (HFA) to offer expert advice and information on end-of-life issues for caregivers. “We are honored to partner with HFA to bring caregivers a complete resource for all their needs,” said Kevin Sypniewski, Founder and CEO of AGIS. “The information we have developed along with HFA’s expert resources will hopefully help caregivers through all phases of care.” AGIS has a comprehensive collection of information and community features all designed to give caregivers a fully functional resource for caring for aging parents, friends or family members. This new addition to the AGIS eldercare portal showcases HFA’s unique expertise in caregiving issues involving terminal illness, grief, emotional pain and other complex issues associated with the last months or weeks of a loved one’s life.
This spring, HFA will release two new special issues of Journeys, a newsletter to help in bereavement. The first new special issue, “Introduction to Hospice,” will address choosing hospice, the challenges of facing loss, opportunities for reminiscence, and self-care for caregivers. Another special issue, “Spring Holidays,” will focus on grief surrounding Mother's Day, Easter and Passover, Father's Day and graduation. Look for these special issues to be available in April 2008.
Back to topWhat’s New @ HFA’s Hospice and Caregiving Blog
HFA’s Hospice and Caregiving Blog www.hospicefoundation.org/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:
- Resiliency in the Face of Trauma - Study Examines Impact of 9/11 on Children
- Grief Support Group Helping College Students Across the Country
- Simple Caregiving Technique Helps in Dementia Care
Living With Grief: Children and Adolescents
HFA’s 15th annual National Bereavement Teleconference, Living With Grief: Children and Adolescents, will be broadcast Wednesday, April 16. HFA's 2008 Teleconference will focus on the experience of grieving children and adolescents and the ways that hospice professionals, teachers and school administrators, grief counselors, funeral directors, and parents can best support these populations as they cope with loss and grief. The program and newly published book will focus on the most current theories and practices in this area, and as always will combine academic research with hands-on ideas for use in hospice support groups and other settings.
Registered sites can be found on HFA’s Find-A-Site database, located here.
This list is updated on a weekly basis so if there isn’t a site near you, please check back in a few days.
Living with Grief Book Chapters Now Available Online
HFA is now making individual book chapters available for online purchase. The chapters are available in PDFs for a low cost of $2.50 each and may be downloaded to your home or office computer. We have put chapters from the last three books online: Living with Grief: Before and After the Death (2007); Living with Grief: Pain Management at the End of Life (2006), and Living with Grief: Ethical Dilemmas at the End of Life (2005). You can read descriptions of each chapter before purchasing.
If you haven’t done so before, HFA encourages you to consider hosting a downlink site for the 2008 teleconference. Read some FAQs about the teleconference to learn about the benefits and the technical requirements of hosting. Please contact us at telecon@hospicefoundation.org if you have any questions or need more information.
Please Note: The Site Coordinator registration form is available from a link on the homepage of our website, www.hospicefoundation.org, or directly here. This year, you can register and pay the materials fee online with a credit card. Alternatively, you may download the application from HFA’s website and mail it to us with a check, money order, or credit card to our Washington, DC address.
After we receive your registration and materials payment, you will receive a detailed Site Coordinator’s Manual in the mail and a password to access teleconference materials on our website.
Upcoming Conferences and Educational Opportunities
Registration is now open for The Association for Death Education and Counseling’s (ADEC) 30th Annual Conference, “Global Mourning--Death Among and Beyond Ourselves.” The conference will take place in Montreal April 30--May 3. Keynote speakers include Kim Phuc, Stephen Lewis, and Leila M. Gupta. Get more information and register here.
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