The Heart of Hospice Podcast

We’re wrapping up our Advance Care Plan Series in collaboration with the amazing team from The Conversation Project from IHI, sharing the lessons we learned during our advance care planning process.  Creating an advance care plan is not an easy task, even if you’re not in the middle of a serious illness.  Family dynamics have a big influence on how conversations about end of life happen.  We learn...

We’re having an open, honest discussion with hospice social worker and author Jill Johnson-Young about intimacy during a serious illness. Jill’s been widowed twice, and knows the importance of physical intimacy even at the end of life.  As a hospice social worker, Jill has seen what it’s like for terminally ill patients and their partners to struggle with physical intimacy.  Losing physical intima...

Kate Debartolo of The Conversation Project is talking with us about advance care planning, and how to talk about what matters most to you. According to The Conversation Project website ( theconversationproject.org ), Kate “has worked at The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) since 2007. She currently leads The Conversation Project team and operations. Additionally, Kate manages and cultiva...

Dr. Aditi Sethi-Brown, founder of the Center for Conscious Living and Dying, has devoted her career to promoting positive death experiences.  She’s a rare hybrid in healthcare, both a hospice physician and an end of life doula.  According to the Center for Conscious Living and Dying (CCLD) website, “CCLD has a vision for death, dying, and grief that involves greater community involvement and conne...

In the 3rd episode of our Advance Care Plan series, Rosemary Lloyd talks about how faith communities can support Advance Care Plan discussions using resources from The Conversation Project. Rev. Rosemary Lloyd was formerly the Advisor to Faith Communities for The Conversation Project.  She’s also a registered nurse, hospice volunteer, and an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister.  Rosemary is a...

Dr. Thanh Neville is talking with us about the benefits of granting end of life wishes through the 3 Wishes Program at UCLA Health. Dr. Neville joined the faculty in the UCLA Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care in 2012 and is both a clinician and a researcher. In 2017, she co-founded the 3 Wishes Program and is currently its Medical Director. According to the UCLA Health website , clinical sta...

Welcome to the second episode of our Advance Care Plan Series in partnership with The Conversation Project, featuring TCP’s Improvement Advisor for Community Engagement and Learning Patty Webster!  Whether you want to have ACP conversations in a group of 5 of 500, The Conversation Project has the resources to get those discussions started.  Through shared stories on TCP’s website, users can find e...

GrandPad founder Scott Lien is talking with us about GrandPad's best features and how it keeps older adults connected. Older adults often feel isolated, and the pandemic separated them even more from family and friends. The GrandPad device is simple for seniors to set up. Customers can access white glove customer support with questions 24/7/365.  The best thing about GrandPad’s convenience is the...

Need some help with those difficult Advance Care Plan discussions? Welcome to our special Advance Care Plan Series featuring Kate Debartolo and the team from The Conversation Project! Conversations about end of life wishes can happen in different places - in family groups, community groups, or inside communities of faith.  No matter where you want to have those ACP discussions, The Conversation Pr...

Our guest Dr. Arian Nachat is an advocate for palliative care services, informed advance care planning, and optimizing quality of life. As founder of Pallity, Arian guides the organization to focus on  “you, the patient, helping you to manage your disease symptoms and treatment side effects while focusing on your quality of life”.  According to their website, Pallity can “help you to better unders...

End of Life Coach and home funeral guide Rhonda Lopresti is talking with us about spiritual care directives, and their importance as part of an advance care plan.  Rhonda Lopresti is a certified End of Life and Life Coach and has been a Holistic Health Practitioner for 30 years.  According to her website ( peacefully-prepared.com ), Rhonda is “passionate in holding and creating sacred space, perso...

Board Certified Clinical Chaplain Jonathan Prescott is back with us to discuss end of life practices in the Zen Buddhist tradition.  Jon is a student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.  Jonathan’s practice as a Clinical Chaplain and Pastoral Counselor is to “support people experiencing illness and end of life, foster effective caregiving and reconnect people with their innate wisdom and compassion”. A...

End Well’s Executive Director Tracy Wheeler is talking with us about end of life discussions, transforming how we think about death, and the launch of End Well’s new podcast!  End Well ’s goal as a non-profit organization is to “bring together a community that unites design, technology, health, policy, and activist initiatives to transform how the world thinks about caregiving, grief, illness and...

End of life educator Carol Schoneberg is sharing wisdom about disenfranchised grief, the grief that society says isn’t real, but we all experience. There are a lot of reasons someone’s grief might be disenfranchised.  Dysfunctional relationships where there was abuse, or former relationships like ex-spouses can be sources of grief that’s not recognized by the people around us.  That disenfranchise...

Warning: This episode contains a description of the loss of a terminally ill infant. It may not be for all listeners.   Boy mom and advocate Kasey Carmona shares the story of her family’s hospice journey with her son CJ.  Using her voice to advocate for her baby’s healthcare, Kasey and her family created quality of life for CJ.  What they found were moments of joy and pockets of goodness in a diff...

Our guest Dean Lambert of The Love Always Project knows firsthand how difficult it is to make funeral arrangements, even after 30 years working with funeral professionals. According to The Love Always Project website , “Dean Lambert has worked with funeral professionals for nearly 30 years to help them connect and serve the families facing one of the most challenging moments of their lives: the lo...

Widowhood, caregiving, and the messiness of grief are just some of the topics we’re talking about with guest John Polo. According to his website, johnpolocoaching.com, “John is a coach, author, and speaker.  In January of 2016, John became a widower after his amazing wife, Michelle, died of cancer.  From the rubble of everything that he once knew, consumed by desperation and despair, John held on...

We’re honored to talk with Dr. Lorraine Dickey about The Narrative Initiative and the benefits of its Write-Read-Reflect method for both patients and staff.  Dr. Dickey is an innovator and activist for a better experience of care within the healthcare system.  She is a healthcare entrepreneur and a motivational speaker as well as a board-certified Neonatologist, board-certified Pediatric Hospice a...

Our guest Judy Cornish is the founder of the Dementia & Alzheimer’s Wellbeing Network and the creator of the DAWN Method, a method for working with people who have dementia that helps them develop and retain a sense of security and wellbeing. As an elder law attorney, Judy had no experience with people with dementia until she met a new neighbor and began to help her lead a full life.  Judy ide...

Our guest Zaundra Ellis believes in servant leadership and has practiced it for over 20 years serving in hospice care.  Zaundra has held many positions in hospice agencies, from executive director to her current role as Vice President of Hospice Solutions for Axxess Solutions.  Through the years, she’s learned lessons about leadership and the importance of caring for the hospice team while they ca...

In this episode, our guest Rabbi Steve Leder shares his perspective on dying and how the death of his father forever changed him. Steve Leder is the senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. After receiving his degree in writing and graduating cum laude from Northwestern University, and spending time studying at Trinity College, Oxford University, Leder received a master’s degree i...

Dr. Jim deMaine is with us to talk with us about advocacy in serious illness and his book Facing Death: Finding Dignity Hope and Healing at the End .  Dr. deMaine is a retired Pulmonary and Critical Care physician, an accomplished public speaker, and an outspoken advocate for end-of-life decisions. In his book Facing Death: Finding Dignity, Hope and Healing at the End, Jim shares numerous stories...

Anthropologist Anita Hannig is talking with us about Medical Aid in Dying, misconceptions about assisted dying laws, and her new book The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America. Every end of life professional should be informed about what medical aid in dying really is. MAID laws, otherwise known as Death with Dignity laws, have been passed in ten states across the U.S. as well a...

We’re talking about comfort feedings today, how they work and the benefits they hold for hospice patients and their caregivers.  Comfort feeding, (also pleasure feeding, is the practice of feeding the patient only what the patient likes and wants.  It might not be considered particularly healthy.  It’s more about enhancing quality of life for the patient.  The focus of food intake is on comfort ra...

Navigating the maze of responsibilities following a death can be overwhelming. Empathy.com can help. The Empathy founders know that loss-related tasks are many, ranging from writing an obituary to closing out business accounts and subscriptions.  On the Empathy website, you’ll find resources to help with choosing a funeral home and celebrant, writing a eulogy, and dealing with issues related to th...