Healthcare professionals and family members often report witnessing unusual or unexpected responses when a person is nearing death. This program will explore phenomena such as terminal lucidity, near death experiences, nearing death awareness, and other end-of-life phenomena, and how clinicians can handle such experiences.

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This DVD program examines, using a case study approach, the ethical issues and dilemmas that emerge at the end-of-life, the principles of ethical decision-making and the effects of these decisions on patients, families and staff.

The cases in the End-of-Life Ethics: A Case Study Approach book (ISBN 978-1-893349-14-8), all written by prominent professionals in end-of-life care or ethics, use case studies to bring to life ethical principles in practice. 

End-of-Life Ethics examines, using a case study approach, the ethical issues and dilemmas that emerge at the end of life. Ethical decisions at the end of life provide a point where all the factors that influence end-of-life care such as finances, laws, values, culture, and technology converge. The decisions that are made at the end of life affect not only the way that the person dies, but also the ways that survivors face the loss. These decisions may influence staff – affecting morale and turnover, consequently directly influencing patient care, as well as families struggling with grief. This program explores ethical dilemmas that are likely to arise at the end of life, the principles of ethical decision-making, and the effects of these decisions on staff and families.

Expert Panelists:  

• Timothy R. Arsenault, MA
• Karen Bullock, PhD, LCSW
• Eileen R. Chichin, PhD, RN
• Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv
• Bruce Jennings, MA
• Hank Willner, MD

Expert Panelist: Kimberly Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, CSE; moderated by Kathleen Taylor, MA, LMHC
Available on demand

Individuals seek non-pharmacological interventions such as complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) for end-of-life care as an adjunct to conventional medicine to assist in symptom management and improve quality of life. This webinar focuses on the concept of "total pain" and highlights techniques such as aromatherapy and massage, to further support dying patients.  

Expert Panelist: Michelle Sproat, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, NP-C, JD
Moderator:  ​Marian Grant, ACNP-BC, ACHPN, FPCN, RN, Senior Regulatory Advisor for CTAC

While all loss is difficult, those whose friends or loved ones die due to self-destructive deaths such as a drug overdose can face unique challenges. This program explores the latest research into these grief situations and how professionals can help survivors cope.

Expert Panelists: Ken Doka, William Feigelman, and John Jordan
On Demand: to registered individuals for 1 year after purchase
Length: 90 minutes
CE Hours: 1.5 CEs available for a variety of boards.  Board Approvals List.
CE Fees: 1 CE certificate is included with purchase

The Living with Grief: Helping Adolescents Cope with Loss DVD addresses issues adolescents face as they cope with loss and explores the ways that hospices, educators, social workers, counselors, clergy, funeral directors, and parents can assist grieving adolescents.

Living with Grief: Helping Adolescents Cope with Loss, the book (ISBN 9781893349179), focuses on types of loss adolescents may face and ways to assist. Some of the foremost experts in the field share their insights in this 24 chapter volume.

Click here to order the self-study program.

Adolescence, broadly defined, from middle school years to emerging adulthood, is a significant developmental period during which adolescents form identity, independence, and intimacy. Illness and loss profoundly influences these processes. Moreover, adolescent encounters with loss are likely to be traumatic – deaths by accident, suicide, and homicide.

This program focuses exclusively on the issues that adolescents face as they cope with loss and explores the ways that healthcare workers, hospices, educators, social workers, counselors, clergy, funeral directors, and other professionals can assist adolescents as they cope with loss. 

Expert Panelists:  

• Tashel Bordere, PhD, MS
• Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv
• Pamela Gabbay, MA, FT, Director
• Stacy F. Orloff EdD, LCSW, ACHP-SW
• Donna L. Schuurman, EdD, FT
• Carol Wogrin, PsyD, RN

Grieving people may experience surprising and unsettling emotions after a death including jealousy, guilt and shame. This webinar offers interventive strategies to help grieving individuals recognize, validate, and resolve such complicated reactions.

Expert Panelists: Ken Doka, PhD, MDiv and Dale Larson, PhD
On Demand: to registered individuals for 1 year after purchase
Length: 90 minutes
CE Hours: 1.5 CEs available for a variety of boards.  Board Approvals List. 
CE Fees: 1 CE certificate is included with purchase

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Widowed parents face unique and often overwhelming challenges as they cope with the loss of a spouse/partner, while helping their children grieve and adapting to life as a sole parent. Dr. Yopp co-leads the Widowed Parent Program at the University of North Carolina, which exists to support and learn about this subset of the grieving population that has been overlooked and underserved. Dr. Yopp, who also authored The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life (Oxford University Press), presents on recent research efforts that focus on treatment, care, and communication choices that parents make at the end of life and how those choices impact the dying experience and the bereavement of the surviving parent.

Expert Panelist: Justin Yopp, PhD

HFA members seek continuous improvement and learning through high-quality, affordable, and easily-accessible professional education from the nation’s top experts.

For-Profit members are for-profit organizations including hospitals, health systems, bereavement support centers, funeral homes, and healthcare vendors (e.g. pharmaceutical distributors, software companies). 

HFA members seek continuous improvement and learning through high-quality, affordable, and easily-accessible professional education from the nation’s top experts.

ADC <150 members are hospice providers with an average daily census of less than 150 patients.