The Heart of Hospice Podcast

We’re excited to connect you with Funeralwise.  It’s a great place to find information about cremation, how different faiths view cremation.  You can find their colorful and informative infographics at funeralwise.com .  Their mission is expressed beautifully on the funeralwise home page - “ Prepare. Celebrate. Remember...We are here to help you prepare wisely and celebrate uniquely.  Because ever...

The choice to die with dignity on your own terms is an intensely personal decision.  There are now 9 states in the U.S. that have Death with Dignity laws in place. Death with Dignity laws enable terminally ill persons to make choices about how and when they die.  If you’re a hospice and palliative care professional, you should know about these laws. You don’t have to endorse these laws, or condemn...

Some experiences are worth repeating.  Our interview with Pulitzer prize-winning author Ellen Goodman was one of our brightest moments, and we’re excited to share it with you in an encore presentation.  Ellen is a co-founder and director of The Conversation Project, an organization whose mission centers around helping people to voice their wishes for care at the end of life.  They know that having...

It’s easy to find a calming moment inside the day when you listen to the Meditative Story podcast. It’s a weekly podcast that “blends intimate first-person stories with mindfulness prompts, enveloped in beautiful music composition”.  As the narrators of the stories share their moments of insight, the incredible music flows around you like a silky warm wind. You can create an interval in your day t...

What hospice teams don’t know can hurt their patients.  End of life professionals who are ignorant of different cultures or faiths can damage the care of seriously ill patients and their families.  Dying Matters, an organization in the U.K. , has a great video that can help you to learn about the death customs and beliefs of the Muslim faith. Dying Matters describes itself as “a coalition of indiv...

We sat down with Matt Kennedy to talk about his beautiful work creating unique urns using a tattoo machine.  According to his website ceramicarttattoo.com , Matt is “a self-taught ceramic artist with an international reputation whose professional career has spanned more than 20 years as a ceramic artist. He’s the first artist to use a tattoo machine as a carving tool on ceramics. Matthew’s art wor...

How did your Social Media Fast go?  On this week’s Heartbeat we spend some time talking honestly about the challenges we experienced.  Before we were even halfway through our 2 week Social Media Fast, we realized this was not going to be easy!  Bouncing between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn has taken up a lot of our time. Being intentional about how we spend our screen time...

Every patient in hospice care has a plan of care that’s designed by the hospice interdisciplinary team.  The patient voices what he or she wants and needs, and then the hospice team determines how we can safely, legally, and ethically meet those needs.  Often team members disagree with what the patient wants. We bring our own biases and personal preferences to the care we provide - and they get in...

How connected are you to social media?  If you find yourself overly connected to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever social media platform you use, maybe a time of disconnection would be healthy.  We’re challenging you to do a 2-week Social Media Fast. We’ll be doing it at the same time. Try using social media just for work needs. Set your cell phone and devices aside when you sit down to a...

Rachel Giger is a certified end of life coach with a mission to support hospice physicians.  While working as a volunteer, she identified that physicians need education about having end of life discussions, and the support to be comfortable with those talks. Now she provides one-on-one consulting to doctors who find themselves at a loss for words and feeling the burden of compassion fatigue. Throu...

We’re delighted to offer you this encore episode of our interview with grief expert David Kessler. David is currently touring the U.S. offering a daylong seminar related to his newest book Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief .   David is bringing his seminar to Texas in February to the following cities.  Dallas, February 11 Houston, February 13 Austin, February 19 San Antonio, February 20 Pl...

Grieving a loss looks a little different for each person and grief from losing a child has its own unique qualities.  Parents Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds know first hand what that loss feels like. Their film “A Love That Never Dies” focuses on their struggle to figure out how to grieve the death of their son.  According to their website https://alovethatneverdiesfilm.com/ , Jane and Jimmy’s son...

There’s a brand new year in front of us - 12 months full of possibilities!  It can be healthy to review your 2019 events. We are amazed at our new connections - Frank Ostaseski, Jon Prescott, Ellen Goodman, Phil Alvarez.  Helen met Barbara Karnes in person! Looking at the year ahead provides opportunities to make changes and improvements. Self care should be a top priority - make it healthy, find...

The Heart of Hospice is excited to connect you with Melissa Lunardini! Melissa is a children’s bereavement manager overseeing a large children’s bereavement program for a hospice agency in California.  Melissa holds an MA in Psychology and an MBA, and is the owner of Tribal Grief, a consulting service that offers expert assistance with grief camps for kids, grief and traumatic loss, school-based p...

Ever wonder how we came up with the tagline that you hear at the end of every one of The Heart of Hospice podcasts?  When we got ready to launch our first episode, Jerry and Helen put a lot of thought into who our audience would be, and how they would connect with our end of life discussions.  Whether you’re a patient or a provider, a grieving parent or a grieving child, your journey is at the hea...

In a story that inspired the nation, New York City police detective Lou Alvarez advocated in support of the first responders who served at Ground Zero following the 911 attack.  Helen and Jerry were honored to sit down with his brother Phil Alvarez, and talk about the Alvarez’s family’s journey. As a veteran detective with the Suffolk County Police Department, Phil knows the meaning of duty and sa...

Anna Lyons and Louise Winter want to change how we converse about death.  Through their organization LifeDeathWhatever.com , the two women are making that happen. Anna is an end of life doula, and Louise is a progressive funeral director.  The Life. Death. Whatever website describes their mission to “redesign the dialogue around death and dying, to open it up and to find new approaches to this imp...

Have you ever met someone and felt an instant connection?  That’s the way we felt when we interviewed today’s guest. Helen Haddick is a hospice certified RN practicing in the northeastern part of the U.S.  Helen H. is the author of the fromsavingtosending website and blog.  With every blog post, she shares her inner thoughts and feelings as a hospice nurse.  Because Helen is willing to be transpar...

There are over 42 million unpaid caregivers in the United States.  Friends and family members of all ages and stages are providing care for a loved one.  Caregiving is a tough job. Think of it like this: around the clock, seven days a week, hard work without pay.  Being a caregiver can deplete relationships, finances, energy, and courage. Today’s episode is for all the caregivers out there who nee...

Healthcare professionals often have to have some of the hardest conversations with their patients.  We deliver news that nobody wants to hear, and we don’t want to say. Doctors are no exception. Often physicians have to deliver test results that are devastating.  In the Frontline documentary “Being Mortal”, Dr. Atul Gawande shines a bright light on doctors and their ability to manage discussions o...

Our special guest on today’s podcast is Dr. Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH.  According to Dr. Zitter’s website www.jessicazitter.com , she is a “national advocate for transforming the way people die in America.”  Harvard and UCSF-trained, Dr. Zitter is a hybrid type of doctor, practicing in both critical care and palliative care medicine.  She works as an Attending Physician in Oakland, California. Dr. Z...

End of life professionals should always maintain healthy boundaries with the seriously ill patients.  When those boundaries become barriers to good care, we’ve damaged our connections with our patients and their families.  Everything from the gloves we wear to the mental biases we communicate without realizing puts barriers between patient and providers.  It’s easy to project our personal opinions...

It’s hard to know which hospice agency will provide the best care for you or someone you love.  When you’re having to hospice shop, using the Helpline from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization is a great way to find an agency in your area.  The NHPCO website can help you ask the right questions to partner with an agency that will be a good fit. Read more about finding a hospice ag...

Another great resource from NHPCO!  Whether you need information on choosing a hospice, advance planning, or end of life care, caringinfo.org is a great place to find what you need.  The resources are free for hospice consumers and providers.  Some of the articles on caringinfo.org come in English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.  If you’ve got questions about pediatric hospice or you need to talk...

Meet Dr. Jennifer Kennedy, Senior Director of Regulatory and Quality for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization!  Jennifer sat down with Helen and Jerry to share her hospice journey, and talk about what we’re doing right in end of life care. According to her bio on the NHPCO website, Jennifer has “more than 30 years of diverse healthcare experience with consistently increasing respo...