October 2015 News & Events
Hospicare Patient Takes a Sentimental Journey
photo of Nick Domster and Maryann
Nick Domster, EMT, helps Maryann into the ambulance at Hospicare.

by Melissa Travis Dunham

Since 2013 Hospicare has teamed with Bangs Ambulance to provide our hospice patients with the chance to take a special trip to a destination of their choice. Known as Sentimental Journeys, this program was originally spearheaded by Bangs ambulance driver Ralph Wilcox, who had heard of a similar program in Colorado. On a recent Friday afternoon one of our Hospicare Residence patients, Maryann, took advantage of the program to attend the First Annual Challenge Recognition Luncheon on the South Hill Business Campus.
 
Although the drive down the hill was only a couple of miles, much preparation was required. Nick Domster, EMT, was dispatched from Bangs in a wheelchair ambulance to safely transport Maryann and her sister to the event. A portable oxygen tank was not going to be sufficient to keep Maryann comfortable for the hour or two that she would be out and about, so Residence Manager, Debi Petersen, RN, hauled an oxygen concentrator to the luncheon . . .

Read more about Maryann's outing.

How to Help a Grieving Friend

photo of two men sitting together
 
Social worker Megan Devine specializes in grief counseling, and has a popular website RefugeInGrief.com. A few years ago she wrote an insightful article about how to support a friend who is grieving. Originally published on the Huffington Post website, Devine's article, frank and open, is still as helpful as ever. Among the eleven ground rules she offers are the following:

Grief belongs to the griever. You have a supporting role, not the central role, in your friend's grief. So many of the suggestions, advice and "help" given to the griever tells them they should be doing this differently or feeling differently than they do. Grief is a very personal experience and belongs entirely to the person experiencing it. 
 
Do not try to fix the unfixable. Your friend's loss can not be fixed or repaired or solved. The pain itself cannot be made better. It is an unfathomable relief to have a friend who does not try to take the pain away.

Anticipate, don't ask. Do not say "call me if you need anything" because your friend will not call. Identifying a need, figuring out who might fill that need, and then making a phone call to ask is light years beyond their energy levels, capacity or interest. Instead, make concrete offers of help: "I will there at 4 pm on Thursday to bring your recycling to the curb."
 
Read all eleven of Devine's helpful tips.

Hospicare Will Give Annual Honors at  Recognition Luncheon

On Thursday, October 22, we will hold our annual recognition luncheon at The Space @ Green Star. An important part of the festivities will be the giving out of two honors celebrating community members who have helped us achieve our mission.

Dr. R. Roy Coats Compassionate Care Award

photo of CMC Palliative Care Team members
The Cayuga Medical Center Palliative Care Team:     (L to R) Suzanne Anderson, MD, Hospicare medical director; Jane Schantz, FNP, ACHPN, Hospicare palliative care nurse practitioner; Deb Traunstein, LCSW, MBA, CMC palliative care program coordinator; and Rev. Tim Dean, CMC director of spiritual care.
 
In keeping with the highest standards of patient care as exemplified by the life and work of Dr. Coats, this award is given to a caregiver or group of caregivers/agency, for consistently providing exceptional, compassionate care to Hospicare patients, allowing them to live their lives as fully as possible.

This year the award goes to the Cayuga Medical Center Palliative Care Team. The Palliative Care team works tirelessly to provide support and guidance and to counsel any patient at CMC with a serious illness. Through a compassionate, interdisciplinary approach, the team helps patients and their families think through options of care. In some cases, one of those options is Hospicare.  

photo of Sue Merrill
Sue Merrill
Hospicare Volunteer Honor

Given to a Hospicare volunteer who has demonstrated a long-term consistent and dedicated commitment to our mission, this year the Volunteer Honor goes to Sue Merrill. Sue has been volunteering with Hospicare since 1998. During that time she has volunteered in many capacities, including grocery shopping once a week for the Residence and working a weekly breakfast shift at the Residence.

For more information about the recognition luncheon or to reserve a seat, visit the 2015 Hospicare Recognition Luncheon event page. 

Hospice Foundation of Cortland County Honors Volunteers
On September 20, the Hospice Foundation of Cortland County held a recognition luncheon to honor some of the volunteers who are responsible for the success of the Foundation's holiday fundraiser, Light of My Life (LOML). LOML is part of the Village of Homer's "Holiday on the Green" event held each year on the first Friday in December. At the luncheon the Foundation honored Dick and Nancy Crawford, Vickie Marsted, Mike and Sue Morgan, Joe Reagan, and Paul and Peg Sweeney.

Being Mortal
Hospicare Joins Library to Sponsor Community Read of Gawande Book

Hospicare and the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) are sponsoring a community reading of Atul Gawande's best- selling book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. In his book, Gawande strives to expand understanding of the facts about mortality and the limits of contemporary medicine. Copies are available in multiple formats at TCPL, For more information, contact Carrie Wheeler-Carmenatty at (607) 272-4557 extension 248 or cwheeler@tcpl.org.

Save the Dates! 
Held at the Nina K. Miller Hospicare Center
172 E. King Road, Ithaca, NY
  • Women Singin' (1st Tuesday of the month), 10/6, 11/3, 5:30−7:00 PM
  • General Support Group for All Bereaved (1st & 3rd Wednesdays of the month), 10/7 & 10/21, 11/4 & 11/18, 5:30−7:00 PM
  • Monthly Bereaved Parents Group (1st Thursday of the month), 10/1, 11/5, 5:30−7:00 PM
  • Leaning Into Love: Ritual and Music in Times of Grief Saturday, 10/24, 10:00 AM−noon
  • Bereaved Parents Four-Week Group: Making Loss Meaningful Mondays, 11/30, 12/7, 12/14 & 12/21, 5:30−7:30 PM. Participants must commit to all four sessions.
Held at the Cortland Hospicare Office
11 Kennedy Parkway, Cortland, NY
  • Morning Support Group for All Bereaved (1st Tuesday of the month), 10/6, 11/3, 10:00−11:30 AM
  • Afternoon Support Group for All Bereaved (3rd Thursday of the month), 10/15, 11/19, Noon−
    1:30 PM
  • Evening Support Group for All Bereaved (2nd Wednesday of the month beginning in October), 10/14, 11/11, 5:30−7:00 PM
Held Offsite
  • Y Wellness Workshops Film Series A film series on end-of-life issues with discussion to follow lead by Hospicare volunteers, 6:30−8:30 PM. Free and open to the public. These showings are held at the YMCA of Ithaca Wellness Center, 50 Graham Road West, Ithaca.
    • Death Makes Life Possible, 10/21
    • Alive Inside, 11/18
    • Gifts of Grief 1/13
  • Annual Hospicare Recognition Luncheon Thursday, 10/22, noon−1:30 p.m. This event will be held at The Space @ Greenstar, 700 W. Buffalo St., 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

Death With Dignity Goal of Hospice
In this opinion piece for the Ithaca Journal, Jane Schantz, Hospicare's Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner, looks at aid in dying for terminally ill patients.

An Extra Layer of Care
Harvard Magazine looks at how palliative care medicine eases suffering and traces its evolution over the last few years as it becomes an integral part of patient treatment.

A doctor looks at the reasons why so many die in a hospital--even though most people say they want to die at home--and what can be done about it.

This Is How You Feed a Dying Person
Favorite food can bring great pleasure to the dying and their loved ones, a hospice nurse relates.

My Dad's Death Was Nothing Like I Imagined
Through drawings and incisive commentary, cartoonist Jack Ohman poignantly describes his father's death.

Website of Interest

RefugeInGrief.com
Megan Devine's website featuring her blog about grief and other helpful tools and reference materials dealing with grief.

AgingCare.com 
A website for caregivers facing the challenges of caring for an aging loved one, full of helpful articles and advice.

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

Women Swimmin'
You can still donate to support one of the 299 amazing women who swam this year. We continue to take donations through the end of the year.

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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