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NOVEMBER 2010 -- ISSUE NINE
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LIFE QUALITY INSTITUTE NEWS |
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New and Exciting at Life Quality Institute
Over the past few months, there have been several exciting changes at Life Quality Institute. First, we'd like to introduce our new Executive Director, Jennifer Ballentine, MA.
"I've been a longtime admirer of Life Quality Institute, and am honored to be working with such an outstanding team. I'm excited to have a hand in expanding LQI's programs and services to meet the needs of our end-of-life care providers and families challenged by serious illness across the state."
Most recently, Jennifer was Research Program Strategist for The Denver Hospice, and also served for 4 years as Director of Programs for the Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care. We look forward to working with Jennifer on new ideas for current and future projects. If you'd like to read Jennifer's bio, please visit the staff page of our website.
Second, Life Quality Institute is excited to announce the completion of our new website. Our goal was to reflect how we've grown over the past several years and to give you easier access to our programs, plus important information and resources. Take a moment to explore the new website.
We wanted to ensure that our e-newsletter, Life Quality Insights, reflected the change as well. Life Quality Insights will now be published monthly to bring you more timely updates regarding hospice and palliative care news and Life Quality Institute.
We hope that you enjoy the new website and our new monthly e-newsletter, Life Quality Insights. If you haven't taken our survey regarding the newsletter, please do so. We are very interested in how we can serve you and our community better through this monthly publication. Thank you all for your continued support of Life Quality Institute. |
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 Breakfast at Brookdale:
Family Systems and Caregiving
Chronic/terminal illness is not an individual challenge. Rather, it is a challenge presented to a family wherein the concerns and emotions of each person within the context of the family must be considered if the family is to function effectively and meet the demands of the illness. More Information
Creating Communities of Care:
Foothills Unitarian Church, Fort Collins
Creating Communities of Care is a cost effective, efficient, compassionate model of communal caregiving designed to complement and support other patient centered models of care. Care receivers and caregivers invite family members, friends, colleagues, and volunteers to share in the responsibilities of care so that no one person is overwhelmed by the experience. As our country debates and explores the various options for healthcare reform, there is one point about which we can all agree - caregiving is a daunting, problematic challenge requiring innovative approaches. The solution lies in coming together and working collaboratively to support and serve the person - patient, healthcare provider, and community members establishing a solid foundation of care. Creating Communities of Care is an essential part of the solution as it instructs and encourages community members to support each other. Please join us to learn how to create your supportive community of care! More Information
Called to Care:
How is it with Your soul?
What is existential suffering, and why is it so often a concern at the end of life? Explore the relationship between spirituality and existential suffering in order to determine appropriate assessment tools and subsequent effective interventions. More Information
For more events or information about LQI, please visit www.LifeQualityInstitute.org |
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HOSPICE & PALLIATIVE MEDICINE NEWS |
 Facing DeathFacing Death, a documentary from PBS Frontline, focuses on staff members and patients in an intensive care unit at one of New York's hospitals. The documentary tracks with the doctors, nurses, and family members as they make hard end-of-life decisions for patients. "Unfounded rumors of federal 'death panels' grabbed headlines last summer, but the real decisions of how we die -- the questions that most of us prefer to put off -- are being made quietly behind closed doors, increasingly on the floors of America's intensive care units." This incredibly intense and intimate documentary will be aired on November 23rd. Watch a sneak peak here.
Atul Gwande: How to Have an End-of-Life Discussion
Following his nationally recognized feature Letting Go in The New Yorker, Atul Gwande spoke at The New Yorker Festival, October 2nd, on "How to Live When You Have to Die". He presented a list of 4 questions given to him by a palliative care physician to discuss with patients. 1) Do they know their prognosis? 2) What are their fears about what is to come? 3) What are their goals? What would they like to do as time runs short? and 4) What are the trade offs they are willing to make? How much suffering are they willing to go through for the sake of the possibility of added time? Watch Dr. Gwande's excerpt here.
COST: Long-Term Care and the Revolving Door
The "revolving door" concept is one that many of us are familiar with and can explain to anyone who asks. Despite this do we really know how much this concept is costing Medicare and the United States? A recent study showed that the "average per capita Medicare spending is more than double for beneficiaries in long-term care facilities than others". Why is it that a person living in a long-term facility is much more likely to end up rotating in and out of the hospital more than a person living in their home would? The study estimates that a 15% reduction in hospital visits of long-term care facility residents would save Medicare $1.3 billion and 25% would save $2.1 billion. Read the article and join the conversation on how we, as healthcare providers, can stop the revolving door.
Palliative Care Law: Humane Treatment and Good Medicine
In last month's Life Quality Insights, we brought you an article about how caregivers in New York were saving the state Medicaid program $12 billion. This month we're highlighting the state's efforts to derail the "death panel" rhetoric by passing the New York Palliative Care Information Act. We applaud the efforts of New York to allow patients access to all of the options available to them at a time when their lives are at a crucial turning point. Recent studies show that hospice use is on the rise and there are subsequent benefits to patients accessing hospice and palliative care services early in their disease progression. Take a stand and let Colorado know what palliative care can do for them by informing your legislators. Visit Vote Smart to find your legislator. |
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What Now?
By: Jane W. Barton, MTS, MASM
 From the time I was a small child, I have been known as a listener and observer. As a child, my silence was often misinterpreted as shyness. In high school and college, classmates related my reticent nature to being a geek (which I was!). As an adult in corporate America, my reserved nature reflected an aloofness that was disconcerting to some. Too often in our culture, silence is misconstrued and unappreciated. Thank goodness I have finally discovered a career in which my natural way of being is an asset!
Now, as a hospice chaplain and end-of-life educator, my abilities to listen well and observe keenly serve me well. Having witnessed both angst and acceptance at the end-of-life, I have spent a good deal of time pondering the disparities in the lived experience. Why in the midst of suffering do some people flourish while others wither? I am constantly amazed by the human spirit as I listen to and observe people confronting their own mortality and the incredible challenges posed by illness and aging. I have learned that it is possible for a person to thrive even as the body yields to the disease process. But how is this possible? Read More |
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