April 2015 News & Events
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Women Swimmin' 2015
a woman jumps into the lake.
 

Women Swimmin' for Hospicare will be happening sooner than you may think. This year's event will be August 8. Registration for swimmers, boaters and volunteers will open in early May.
  • Swimmer registration will open May 4 at 6:00 a.m. Plan to register early: last year all available spots were filled in less than three hours!
  • Boater registration will open May 11 at 9:00 a.m.
  • Volunteer sign-up will begin May 11 at 9:00 a.m.

Women Swimmin' is a community swim--not a race--and has become our largest fundraising and community outreach event. Stay tuned for more information on how you can get involved with our 12th Annual Women Swimmin' for Hospicare.   

 

Visit the Women Swimmin' website for more information.

 

New This Year!
Women Swimmin' Laps for Hospicare
The poster for Women Swimmin' Laps

We are pleased to announce a new addition to the Women Swimmin' family: Women Swimmin' Laps for Hospicare. This new opportunity allows women who aren't able to swim across the lake on August 8 to swim in pools (with a certified lifeguard) to raise money for Hospicare.

 

If you would like to participate in Women Swimmin' Laps for Hospicare, here's how: find an appropriate pool, set your own distance goal, and let your friends and family know you are swimmin' for Hospicare. Swim at your own pace anytime and for as many days as you want between May 5 and August 8.

 

Registration for Women Swimmin' for Laps is on-going from May 5 until May 31.

 

Visit the Women Swimmin' website for more information. 

 

National Volunteer Week April 12-18
Thank You to Our Amazing Volunteers
Volunteer Marg Pough often brings her
border terriers to visit patients
and staff at the Hospicare Residence.

Our volunteers are truly amazing! They give selflessly of their time, expertise and compassion to help Hospicare support and care for those at the end of life. We couldn't fulfill our communities' expectations without their help.

 

Thank you to every volunteer. You are the bedrock that provides a firm foundation for our important work. 

 

2014 Statistics

 

Number of volunteers: 116 

 
Number of volunteer hours: 4655

 

Worth of volunteer hours: $123,125

 

Percent of direct patient care hours by volunteers: 16%

 

Read more about Hospicare's volunteers.

 

Five Steps for Advance Care Planning
A woman looks worriedly at her older family member.

Advance care directives are directions you give to your loved ones and medical professionals outlining your healthcare wishes in the event you are unable to articulate them yourself.

If you haven't yet shared your advance care wishes, follow these five steps to ensure your healthcare choices and desires are communicated to those who will make decisions for you if you are incapacitated.


1. Learn about the most common forms of advance care directives.

  • A living will gives you the power to designate what types of health care intervention you want or don't want should you become incapacitated and unable to state your wishes at the time of your healthcare crisis.
2. Talk about your health care wishes with your family, friends and doctor. Although you may think that your loved ones and physician know what you would want if you were incapacitated or unable to speak for yourself, that is not necessarily the case . . .

Read more about advance care planning.

Camp Kesem Cornell 
New Summer Camp for Children Whose Parents Have Cancer   

 

The Ithaca area has a new camp for children whose parents have cancer. Camp Kesem Cornell is a brand new chapter of a national organization that oversees the free camps, which are put together by college students and run by them as well. Donna George, Hospicare's manager of bereavement services, is on the Camp Kesem Cornell advisory board. This year's Camp Kesem will held August 9-14 at Camp Caspar Gregory in Aurora, NY. It is a sleep-away camp for children age 6-16.

 

For more information, check out the Camp Kesem Cornell website.

 

Save the Dates!

Held at the Nina K. Miller Hospicare Center

172 E. King Road, Ithaca, NY

  • Monthly Bereaved Parents Group 4/2, 5/7 (1st Thursday of the month), 5:30−7:00 PM
  • Evening Support Group for Adults 4/1 & 4/15, 5/6 & 5/20 (1st & 3rd Wednesdays of the month), 5:30−7:00 PM    

  • Write Your Grief Tuesday, 4/14, 3:00−4:15 PM

  • Guts, Grief & Pizza: a Workshop for Teens Thursday, 4/9, 6:00−8:00 PM. Registration required by April 3. E-mail LWard@hospicare.org
  • Spring Film Series Wednesdays
  • Women Singin' 4/7, 5/5 (1st Tuesday of the month), 5:30−7:00 PM
  • Women Swimmin' Registration Monday 5/4, Opens at 6:00 AM
  • Remembering Our Parents: Honoring Their Lives and Legacies Tuesday, 5/19, 6:00−8:00 PM
Held at the Cortland Hospicare Office 
11 Kennedy Parkway, Cortland, NY
  • Morning Support Group for All Bereaved 4/7, 5/5 (1st Tuesday of the month), 10:00−11:30 AM
  • Afternoon Support Group for All Bereaved 4/16, 5/21 (3rd Thursday of the month), Noon−1:30 PM
Held Offsite
  • Cortland Chamber of Commerce Showcase
    4/11, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM. Hospicare will have a table. Come and visit us! This event will be held at the JM McDonald Sports Complex, Fairgrounds Road, Cortland.
  • Hospice Foundation of America Teleconference The Longest Loss: Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia 5/14, 1:00-4:00 PM. This event will be held at Island Health and Fitness, 310 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca.
For more information on any of the above groups or events, please call 607-272-0212, or visit our Events page to download a PDF of our current calendar.

 
Our mission is to bring medical expertise and compassionate, respectful care to people and their loved ones at any stage of a life-threatening illness, and to provide information and education about advanced illness, dying and bereavement to the entire community.

In the News
Traveling to attend distant funerals can be especially hard on seniors.

  

A former grief counselor suffering from ALS realizes that he can't protect his love ones from grieving his death.

A palliative care nurse and author of the book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying shares her patients' biggest regrets.

What You Should Know About Hospice Social Workers
Social workers are a vital part of the hospice team, providing emotional support, crisis intervention, and counseling.
Facing Death, He Found Comfort in a New Suit and Tie
An oncologist supports a difficult patient and learns important lessons from the patient's final days.  
Website of Interest

A website that offers concrete video examples to help you understand how to deal with complex medical questions and advance care planning decisions. (Also available in Spanish.)

Engage with Grace
A website featuring five concise questions that can help initiate and guide conversations about advance care planning.

two hands clasping
Help terminally ill people spend the end of their lives peacefully and without pain.

Our Wish List
Items to make patients and their families more comfortable. 

Amazon Smile
Shop through Amazon Smile, and 0.5% of your purchase price will be donated to Hospicare.
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