I ran across an article this morning that I found a few months ago.
Like a memorable song, the content plays in your head and you forget it. Later when it reappears you remember what a great song it was. So it was with this article.
Donald P. Copley, M.D., a cardiologist wrote about the benefits
Adding HIPAA information to the volunteer training program has proved quite daunting.
I have researched the OCR and HHS sites and
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Hospice Volunteer Awards Presented at National Conference in Atlanta
Awards Sponsored by National Hospice Foundation and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- There are more than 550,000 trained, hospice volunteers contributing more than 25 million hours annually to hospice organizations across the country. Three of those volunteers were honored by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the National Hospice Foundation for their extraordinary efforts to serve.
The Volunteers are the Foundation of Hospice Awards were presented today at NHPCO's 11th Clinical Team Conference at the Sidney Marcus Auditorium at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
"One of the highlights of my job is meeting the staff and volunteers working in hospices across the country. Each and every hospice volunteer deserves recognition and the highest of accolades but the volunteers we are recognizing today truly demonstrate an outstanding level of commitment and passion," said Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of NHPCO and the National Hospice Foundation.
The Volunteers are the Foundation of Hospice Awards, created and administered by NHPCOs NATIONAL COUNCIL OF HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE PROFESSIONALS, recognize hospice volunteers who best reflect the universal concept of volunteerism in its truest sense—serving as an inspiration to others. The 2010 awards were presented to volunteers whose work has focused on specific areas.
- Patient/Family Support: Margaret Williams-DeCelles, a volunteer with Partners Hospice in Waltham, Massachusetts.
- Organizational Support: Charlotte "Jeff" Liddell, a volunteer with Hospice of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
- Teen Service: Juno Lee, a volunteer with Suncoast Hospice in Clearwater, Florida.
Schumacher added, "The service of volunteers -- in every aspect of hospice and palliative care -- is truly a gift of caring that makes a world of difference to patients, families and the organization's they serve."
Learn more about these distinguished award recipients in the awards section of NHPCO's website at www.nhpco.org/awards.
NHPCO is the oldest and largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. NHPCO's mission is to lead and mobilize social change for improved care at the end of life.
SOURCE National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
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http://www.nhpco.org
Congratulations to the cream of the elite crop. You are a light to those lost in their own darkness.
Topics: Aging, Medicare, Health Reform
By Michelle Andrews Sep 07, 2010 About this time last year, voters and politicians were consumed by the rumor, fanned by health-care overhaul opponents, that the legislation would include "death panels" of government bureaucrats who could "pull the plug on Grandma" if she needed costly care.
The outcry led legislators to scrap a provision of the House bill that would have paid for voluntary consultations between physicians and Medicare beneficiaries about end-of-life care: living wills, hospice benefits and the like. More From This Series: Insuring Your Health
Since the furor died down, end-of-life care has been mostly out of the spotlight. But misperceptions remain. A July poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 36 percent of seniors still believe that the overhaul creates "death panels." Another 17 percent said they didn't know one way or the other.
Many people may not realize that, in some ways, the new law will expand options for patients at the end of life.
One of these involves hospice care, in which a team of specially trained providers treats dying patients' pain and other symptoms but doesn't try to cure the underlying disease. The team also helps the patients' families, instructing them in caring techniques and providing bereavement counseling after death. Under current Medicare rules, beneficiaries whose doctors determine that they have less than six months to live can choose hospice care -- but only if they forgo any further life-prolonging treatment related to their disease.
The new law establishes a three-year "concurrent care" demonstration program at 15 sites nationwide, in which Medicare would cover both kinds of treatment simultaneously.
Although the vast majority of patients seeking hospice benefits are over 65, starting in 2013, the new law also allows children who are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to receive both hospice and curative care.
Some private insurers, such as Aetna and UnitedHealthcare, have been offering concurrent care to their private-market clients for years.
Experts agree that hospice benefits can provide crucial support for both patients and families during a very difficult time, and some research indicates they may extend the patient's life. Yet fewer than 40 percent of patients are in hospice care when they die, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
Many terminally ill patients wait until death is imminent to choose hospice care. The median length of time in hospice was just over 20 days in 2008; more than a third of people died or were discharged from hospice in seven days or less.
"We think it's far too short a period for patients and their families to adjust to the realities of impending death," says Jon Keyserling, vice president of public policy and counsel for the NHPCO.
Adding support to the notion that providing curative and supportive benefits together is good for patients is a study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine. It found lung cancer patients who received specialized care to help manage their physical and psychosocial symptoms while they were undergoing standard cancer treatment received less aggressive end-of- life care but lived longer than patients who received standard cancer treatment alone.
After going through a couple of rounds of chemotherapy and many radiation treatments to treat his lung cancer, Crune Carawan finally decided he’d had enough. Somewhat reluctantly, his wife, Judith, who’d been caring for him since his diagnosis in May 2009, called a hospice center near their home in Columbus, Ohio. "I was skeptical about hospice," she says.
She quickly changed her mind. Three hospice nurses came to the home, evaluated her husband and adjusted his medications, making sure he wasn't in any pain. They ordered a hospital bed and got it set up that same day.
Over the course of the next week, a nurse visited several times to help calm him when he felt anxious. They also talked with her about what to expect and gave her a small book that described the changes she might see in him. He died seven days after their first visit.
"I kind of do wish they'd come in earlier," Judith Caravan says. "He really enjoyed the nurses. They'd come in and laugh with him."
Hospice professionals say patients and family members are better served if they use hospice benefits for about two months.
Experts agree that the requirement that they forgo curative treatment stops some Medicare patients from choosing hospice. Even when aggressive therapy may provide little therapeutic benefit while severely diminishing the patient's quality of life, it's not easy to say "no more." Once the 15 demonstration sites are up and running, expected sometime in 2012, participants won't have to make that choice. kff.org © 2010 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Imagine for a second that your doctor is telling you point-blank that you're going to die.
Now imagine that there's a reporter standing on your doorstep, asking you to talk openly and candidly about that experience.
This is exactly the situation that Bill and Tomi Gallagher have faced since last winter.
"I think we didn't realize that Bill wasn't going to get better until the doctor said it very frankly," Tomi says. "So you kind of have to face that."
The Gallaghers signed up for hospice care with High Peaks Hospice and also agreed to meet with me every week or two to talk about their experience.
That kind of generosity isn't exactly rare in the North Country.
But it is a kind of trust that does sometimes give me pause about the work I do.
When someone shares with me a story this important and sensitive and difficult, it's a blessing and a gift to be sure. But it's also a daunting responsibility.
So in case it doesn't come through loud and clear in the series The Hospice Path that begins today, here are the two big take-aways.
First, hospice can be incredibly valuable for people trying to find as much richness as possible at the end of their lives. Here's how Tomi puts it:
"We needed some help and direction in kind of trying to continue on with life. I mean, hey — let's not pull the lid over yet, you know?"
Secondly, the Gallaghers are people who find a way to give and show hospitality even when their own challenges are monumental.
I think you'll hear how open and vulnerable and honest they've been in describing this time in their lives.
But you'll also get a sense for their courage.
My hope is that their story will help others in the North Country to understand that there are people and services available when their own crisis comes.
If you've had experience with hospice and feel comfortable talking about it, please post comments below.
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