The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Hospice and palliative physician Dr. Matthew Tyler is teaching us how to have conversations with your healthcare team about what matters most to you. In addition to his work as medical director of palliative care services, Matthew educates the public about having meaningful discussions with their healthcare teams, especially the doctor. He calls it “ How to Train Your Doctor ”. People with serious...

Being an advocate for someone in hospice care is a big job. MSW Jacob Kendall of Demystifying Healthcare is teaching us how to do it well. Advocacy for his own healthcare needs has taught him how to communicate with a healthcare team to get the best care possible. Jacob teaches about the various aspects that influence that care that’s available for patients, including time and communication. He’s...

As co-founder of Empowered Endings, Dr. Bob Uslander, is working to shift the paradigm of End of Life Care by supporting, guiding, and teaching an empowered approach to Palliative and End of Life Care.  He became aware of the gaps in hospice and palliative care that cause patients to struggle.  The deaths of his parents and a dear friend provided a personal perspective into caregiving that formed...

In part 2 of our grief series with Grief Coach Shelby Forsythia, Shelby talks about identifying your grief allies, different grief styles, and how to create continuing bonds with the ones you’ve lost.  As founder of Life After Loss Academy, she uses what she’s learned in the years after her mother’s death to help other grievers make their way through a grief journey.  Shelby uses mindfulness techn...

Grief Coach Shelby Forsythia is teaching us how it’s possible to grow through grief.  As founder of Life After Loss Academy, she uses what she’s learned in the years after her mother’s death to help other grievers make their way through a grief journey.  Shelby uses mindfulness techniques and open-ended questions to guide her clients to welcome grief as a teacher.  Shelby’s work has been featured...

Dementia practitioner Mary Anne Oglesby-Sutherly is on a mission to transform the landscape of dementia care.  As co-founder of Veranda Ministries, a 501(c)3, Mary Anne has spent two decades telling the stories of people dealing with dementia.  Supporting dementia caregivers is her gift, and helping them to remember their person’s legacy is a top priority.   Mary Anne got her start as a family pra...

Welcome to Season 9 of The Heart of Hospice Podcast! Occupational Therapists Emilia Bourland and Dr. Brandy Archie are sharing how OTs can improve the quality of life for patients and caregivers on hospice care.  OTs are underutilized in end-of-life care, but they’re an essential part of the hospice interdisciplinary team.  There’s a lot of support OTs can offer to make caregiving tasks easier, pr...

Erin Whalen, founder of Compassionate Coaching, is working to help end of life and grief professionals love their work again.  Using her unique gifts, Erin and the Compassionate Coaching theater troop employ “playback theater” to develop engaging programming that centers around giving and receiving empathy.  They work with end of life teams to mitigate burnout, enabling the teams to continue provi...

Pharmacist Ellen Fulp is passionate about using medications appropriately to care for patients who are at their most vulnerable.  As a part of the hospice interdisciplinary team, Ellen collaborates with the hospice director and nurse to ensure quality of life is supported, and a patient’s suffering is reduced.  Caregivers and patients often misunderstand how medication is used in hospice care.   E...

Funeral director and author Jodi Clock knows personally how each person finds a grief style that’s the best, healthy fit for themselves.  As host of the “I Woke Up Dead - Now What?” podcast, Jodi is having conversations about our common experiences with death, shares best practices, and asks the tough questions in order to prepare for end-of-life realities we all will face.   Jodi learned valuable...

Hospice nurse Eileen Spillane of Befriending Death has learned to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Eileen is the Founder of Befriending Death and has been a Registered Nurse for over thirty years, specializing in Oncology, Critical Care, and Obstetrics.  She is a certified Life Coach from New Ventures West, a former Zen Hospice Project Volunteer, a Meditation Teacher, and an Active Travel Gu...

“What do I need to know about you as a person to take the best care of you?”  This is how integrative palliative medicine physician Dr. Delia Chiaramonte starts conversations with her patients. It’s a Dignity Question that lets her patients know she cares about them as a person. Delia works in integrative palliative medicine to care for the whole person.  Dr. Delia Chiaramonte is a caregiver coach...

End of Life Doula Trina Wacasey works to ensure that clients and families have the kind of personalized death care they want. Using family-guided care customized to fit their beliefs, needs, and wants, Trina guides caregivers through deaths, post-mortem care, and rituals after death.   After working in the corporate world, Trina was drawn to the work of an end of life doula. She volunteered at a h...

Today’s guest Dr. Qwynn Galloway-Salazar is a Veteran, death doula, compassionate educator, and the founder of In Their Honor, a national initiative raising awareness and addressing Veterans' unique challenges as they approach the end of life.  Qwynn is also the spouse of a combat veteran and understands the role of veteran caregivers.   1 in 4 Medicare hospice patients is a U.S. military veteran...

Dr. Kenneth Doka and Alex Lamorie of the Hospice Foundation of America’s Autism and Grief Project are advocates for people with autism.  Dr. Doka is a prolific author, editor, and lecturer, past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and a member and past chair of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.  Alex Lamorie is an undergraduate student at t...

Devin (D.S.) Moss brings a sense of reverence for life and a curiosity about death to his work as a chaplain. During a conversation with a Zen Master about Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife, the suggestion was made to him that he would make a good chaplain. Devin didn’t think he could do the work of spiritual care because of his humanist beliefs. He doesn’t believe in God. Turns out the Zen Mas...

1 in 4 Medicare hospice patients is a U.S. military veteran.  End of life workers need to know how to take care of their special needs and enhance their quality of life.  It’s important for EOL teams to know the signs of PTSD and how to listen when these patients (and their caregivers!) are communicating what they need. Many military veterans experience trauma, guilt, and anger, causing what is id...

Christina Keys can tell you the realities of being a caregiver for someone with a serious illness - the good, the bad, and the ugly. As the sole caregiver for her mother following a catastrophic stroke, Christina experienced financial, emotional, mental, physical, and relational impacts. The relationship between the two women was complicated, following a history of childhood abuse.   When her mom...

This trio of End of Life Doulas is educating the public and other doulas about EOL doula work, and how they support people as they die.  Diane Button, Gabby Jimenez, and Angela Shook are sharing their wisdom along with practical guidance for doula work.  With heart, compassion, and respect for the intensity of death, the three EOL doulas discussed the unknowns about doulas.  They openly acknowledg...

Hospice nurse Shelley Henry is supporting nurses working in end of life care with advocacy, video tips, and support for their self care.  Shelley uses the two words “divine intervention” to describe how she got ino working with patients at the end of their lives.   After 20 years in the hospice industry, Shelley remains committed to preserving the art of hospice nursing. She’s the president of The...

Sarah Cavanaugh believes having conversations about death helps us clear the air and find peace, whether those discussions are in person or in our hearts and minds.  Sarah is the founder of Peaceful Exit,  a company that explores all aspects of grief and loss. She co-designed a curriculum to open the conversation around the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of death and dying.  She al...

As a caregiver her entire adult life, Elizabeth Miller has learned how to find the joy in the caregiving life. As a Certified Caregiving Consultant, she helps other caregivers make the best of their own experience.  Elizabeth joined forces with her siblings to provide support for their parents, and for her developmentally delayed brother.  Each sibling brought his or her own skill set and strength...

Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death, has been talking about death and dying for years - and she’s still alive.  As an award-winning death speaker, Gail uses humor and film clips to educate the public about advance care planning, funeral pre-planning, and estate planning.  She’s a Certified Thanatologist and a featured speaker at TEDxABQ, where she spoke on “A Good Goodbye”.  Gail is the author of fou...

Jennifer O’Brien is sharing details of her caregiving journey, telling the story of her husband’s life-limiting illness and how she’s learned to make the most of Precious Time.  After working 35+ years as a practice management consultant to physicians, Jennifer supported her husband Bob up to and through the end of his life.  As a hospice and palliative care physician, Bob knew what to expect from...

The story of the terminal illness and death of Kimberly Acquaviva’s wife Kathy is powerful, intense, real… and human. As a hospice social worker and LGBTQ+ community advocate, Kim knows what good end of life care looks like. During their experience with Kathy’s end stage cervical cancer, the women discovered that none of the hospice agencies where they lived had LGBTQ - inclusive non-discriminatio...