In HFA’s audio series', Professionally Speaking and HFA Cares Webinars and the E-news Interview Series, experts, thought leaders and others share their experience and their take on end-of-life care and issues. Listen and read below for their insights.
 

Professionally Speaking Audio Series

You can listen simply by clicking on the title.

Interview with Pete Shrock, Comfort Zone Camps
Pete Shrock, Vice President of Strategy and Design, rose through the ranks of Comfort Zone Camps, a nonprofit operator of child and adolescent bereavement camps in several states. Shrock started as a volunteer and eventually became National Program Director, his title when this interview was conducted for HFA's 2014 Living with Grief® program, "Helping Adolescents Cope with Loss."

Interview with Lara Palay, LISW-S
Lara Palay is Senior Fellow at the Center for Systems Change in Columbus, Ohio. She is a licensed social worker and clinical supervisor. She teaches clinical social work at The Ohio State University College of Social Work. Ms. Palay served as the first Project Manager for the Mental Illness/Developmental Disabilities Coordinating Center of Excellence for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities. Interview recorded June 2013

Interview with Joan M. Teno, MD, MS
Joan M. Teno, MD, MS, is a Professor of Community Health and Medicine, and Associate Director of the Center for Gerontology for Health Care Research at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. She is a health services researcher, hospice medical director and board certified Internist with added qualification in Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Teno has had more than 120 research articles published in leading medical journals. Her area of interest is in medical care for the frail and for the dying residing in nursing homes. She is a recognized expert in artificial nutrition and hydration. Interview recorded July 2012

Interview with Ira Byock, MD
Dr. Byock has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978. He is a founder of a hospice program in Fresno, California, a past president of the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and has published numerous articles on the ethics and practice of end-of-life care, hospice care and palliative care.  He also has written numerous books including The Best Care Possible.  Byock was interviewed by HFA Medical Consultant Hank Willner, MD. Interview recorded January 2012.
 

Enews Interview Series

Interview with Dr. Hank Willner
Dr. Willner is the Chief Medical Director at Holy Cross Home Care and Hospice, and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Practice at Georgetown University Medical School. He serves as HFA’s Medical Consultant and was interviewed by Lisa McGahey Veglahn, Vice President for Programs at HFA.

Interview with Henry Fersko-Weiss
Henry Fersko-Weis has developed an End-of-Life Doula program. Fersko-Weis trains volunteers to help support patients and families, especially during the active dying process. As he states, “With all of the stress that families are going through as someone nears the end of life, attention is not always given to what that actual dying process will be like. Having an EOL doula can help the dying person contemplate what might bring meaning at that time.  Just opening up these conversations can create a new and transformative experience for the dying person and those who love him or her.”

Interview with Nancy Webster
Nancy Webster is the Board President of The Arc of the United States. The Arc is the largest national community-based organization, promoting and protecting the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and actively supporting their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes. 

Interview with Bryan Harnetiaux
Bryan Harnetiaux has been a Playwright-in-Residence at Spokane Civic Theatre in Spokane, WA, since 1982. Thirteen of his plays have been published; these works include original plays as well as commissioned stage adaptations.  He has written a cycle of plays on end of life: Vesta, Dusk, and Holding On ~ Letting Go.  All of these plays (Holding On ~ Letting Go in abridged form) are licensed in clinical settings addressing end-of-life issues (medical and professional conferences, etc.) through Hospice Foundation of America; contact us for more information.

Interview with Elizabeth Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH                                      
Elizabeth Clark is the former Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers. Dr. Clark’s clinical specialty areas are oncology social work, and loss and grief.

Interview with Joseph Miller
Joseph A. Miller has been principal of Intermediate School 77-Ridgewood, New York, since 2003. He has over 25 years service as an educator in both public and private schools working from the elementary level to high school. He has a BA from Queens College in Flushing, NY; an MDiv. from the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, NY; an MS Ed from the College of New Rochelle in School Supervision and Administration and a graduate certificate in Thanatology from the College of New Rochelle as well. He is certified as a thanatologist (CT) through the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC).

Interview with Dr. William Worden
J. William Worden, PhD, ABPP, is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and holds academic appointments at Harvard Medical School and the Rosemead Graduate School of Psychology in California. He is also co-principal investigator for Harvard's Child Bereavement Study, based at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the author of Personal Death Awareness; Children & Grief: When a Parent Dies; and is co-author of Helping Cancer Patients Cope. His book Grief Counseling & Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner, now in its third edition, has been translated into 12 languages and is widely used around the world as the standard reference on the subject.
 

HFA CARES Webinar Series

These programs were funded by a federal grant (CMS) awarded in 2010. Click on the program title to listen to the audio file, and click on the slides link to view or download the associated slide pack (pdf format).

Cultural Diversity in Hospice     (Runs 47:35)     Slides

Family Caregiving: Coping with the Challenges     (Runs 15:31)     Slides

Coping with Cancer at the End-of-Life     (Runs 46:20)     Slides

Alzheimer's Disease and Hospice Care     (Runs 48:55)     Slides

Hospice in Rural America      (Runs 54:38)     Slides

Understanding Grief     (Runs 21:11)     Slides

Hospice Volunteers - Recruiting, Retaining, Rewarding     (Runs 42:54)     Slides