LIFEline September, 2001
(Living Initiatives For End-of-Life Care)
· The 15-week newspaper series, “Finding Our Way: Living With Dying in America,” begins this week in newspapers across the country. The series, underwritten by several foundations, is free to all US newspapers. The series covers such issues as pain, widowhood, advance directives, last rites, caring for aging parents and partners, grief, violent death, losing a child, and others. Extensive coverage of local efforts to improve end-of-life care was provided in the Lawrence Journal-World (Lawrence, KS). Lawrence Caring Community Council chair, Dr. Emily Taylor, was quoted in one article on the importance of discussing issues of death and dying. “It’s important to our community, and every community in the country, to set up an arrangement to have peace at the end of life, and to have people talk about,” said Taylor, former dean of women at Kansas University and a member of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts.
The Hays Daily News (Hays, KS) also included local coverage to coincide with the FOW series. In the spotlight Sunday were the LIFE Project and Wanda Koerner of the Hays Caring Community.
Other newspapers across the country made an early commitment to run some or all of the articles. These include the Lawrence Journal-World, the Hays Daily News and the Kansas City Star, serving areas in Kansas, and, nationally, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Oregonian, The Albany Times-Union, the Buffalo News, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Arizona Republic, Honolulu Advertiser, Indianapolis Star, The World Journal (the nation’s largest Chinese-language daily newspaper) and dozens of others. Articles may be previewed at www.krtdirect.com/dying, and articles currently running can be seen at www.findingourway.net. (Internet Wire, 9/10)
· Smoky Hills Public Television in Bunker Hill, Kansas, with call letters KOOD, KSWK, and KDCK will re-air the Moyers PBS series, “On Our Own Terms,” on four consecutive Sundays (Sept. 16, 23, 30, Oct. 7) from 5:30-7:00 pm.
· Make plans now to attend the 2001 Midwest Regional Conferenceto be held Oct. 4-5 at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown. The conference, “Building Bridges to Quality End of Life Care,” is jointly sponsored by Missouri Hospice and Palliative Care Association, Association of Kansas Hospices, Missouri End-of-Life Coalition, and Medicus CME. The conference offers three plenary sessions and 30 concurrent sessions. Featured plenary speaker on October 4 will be Carlos F. Gomez, MD, PhD, Assoc. Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia-Charlottesville. Dr. Gomez will lead off the conference with “Moral Discourse as a Bridge Between Hospice and Palliative Care.” He has focused his medical career on developing quality end of life care models and advocating for quality care for terminally ill patients. Darcia D. Sims, PhD, CGC, CHT, Grief, Inc., will present “Creative Coping: First Aid for Burnout and Compassion Fatigue” on Friday, Oct. 5. Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, Assoc. Professor of Medicine and Sociology, University of Chicago, who authored the study that reports “physicians dramatically overestimate the amount of time their terminally ill patients have left to live,” will close out the conference with “How Long Do I Have to Live? The Role of Prognostication in Care at the End of Life.”
The Association of Kansas Hospices will hold its annual meeting during the conference. To request a registration packet, please contact MHPCA at (816) 350-7702, or email cindy@mohospice.org. A limited number of hotel rooms is available at the group rate, so call and make your reservations now!
· If you’re still in Kansas City for the AKH Annual Meeting, why not stay over an extra night and attend “Journey to Life’s End: Decisions, Love, Hope” on Saturday, October 6, 2001, at Johnson County Community College Carlsen Center in Overland Park. This unique end-of-life symposium will feature a full day of recognized speakers and breakout sessions that will address such important issues as advance directives, organ donation, ethical dilemmas in health care, palliative care, pain and symptom management, government programs and benefits, end-of-life issues involving children, caregiving for seniors, grief preparation, and more. The keynote presenter will be national syndicated columnist and radio talk show celebrity, Mitch Albom, author of the bestseller, Tuesdays with Morrie. Also presenting: former Kansas City mayor and Sr. Pastor of St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Emanuel Cleaver II; and Chris Cruzan White, Executive Director of the Cruzan Foundation.
Special sessions are available for nursing continuing educations credits. Cost is $15. For more information contact the Ask-a-Nurse Resource Center at (816) 932-6220 or call Johnson County Community College at (913) 469-4445 to register by phone. The program is co-sponsored by Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Johnson County Community College, KCPT Public Television, Midwest Bioethics Center, Compassion Sabbath, and the LIFE Project.
· All LIFE Project Partners and Funders are invited to attend our annual Project Partner Meeting on Friday, October 26, at the Pozez Education Center at Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka. Your attendance at this meeting is important! The Kansas LIFE Project has over 50 Project Partners working together to improve end-of-life care for all Kansans. This annual meeting gives everyone an opportunity to learn more about LIFE Project initiatives and other efforts underway throughout the state.
The meeting will be held from 10:00 am – Noon. We are currently finalizing the agenda and will send more information to you soon. Please mark your calendars now!
· Please join with us in welcoming Johnson County Community College as a Project Partner!
· The LIFE Project Pain Protocol Project was recently highlighted in the latest issue of the Community-State Partnerships to Improve End-of-Life Care "Update." The report was an insert in the Summer 2001 Last Acts newsletter, QUARTERLY, and includes updates on other state activities in pain management. To view the issue (in PDF format) please log on to our website: www.lifeproject.org/_about_painupdate.htm. This link has just been created to publicize updates on the Pain Protocol Project. Bookmark this page on your browser and check back often!
· Jan Brandom, LIFE Project Coordinator, and Sandy Kuhlman, Executive Director of Hospice Services, Inc., Phillipsburg, KS, and Co-Chair of the LIFE Project Public Engagement and Education Task Group, attended Caring Communities council meetings in Great Bend and Hutchinson on August 20 and 21.
· The LIFE Project website has logged nearly 69,000 hits since it was launched a year ago! If you haven’t logged on lately, what are you waiting for?
· The LIFE Project has purchased the 7-part video training series, “Effective Pain Management Practices in Home Health,” produced by the Resource Center of the American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The video series has been donated to the Wichita Public Library and is available through the statewide inter-library loan system. This training series is recommended for use in all health care settings, not just home health. If your organization is interested in purchasing the set for your own training library, please call The Resource Center at (608) 262-0978. The cost is $70.
· National Pharmacy Week is October 21-27. The LIFE Project thanks Kansas pharmacists for their efforts, year-round, to help citizens live with good health! The LIFE Project has provided the members of the Kansas Pharmacists Association with a printable file format for prescription bag stuffers to commemorate National Pharmacy Week. The PDF file is available under the “Members Only” section of their website: www.kansaspharmacy.org.
UPCOMING EVENTS: For a complete listing of upcoming seminars, conferences and courses being offered on end-of-life or related issues, please visit our website at www.lifeproject.org/_news_calendar.htm.
T/B/A Plans are being made for a 6-week EPEC Tele-Conference training course to be offered in the fall of 2001 by the LIFE Project and the University of Kansas Medical Center. EPEC (Education for Physicians in End-of-Life Care), an AMA certified course, is tentatively planned to be broadcast to three downlink sites in Kansas on six consecutive Tuesdays in September and October from 6:00-8:30 pm. Twelve (12) CME credits will be provided, and the cost is $135 per person. Stay tuned; exact dates and locations to be announced shortly.
SEPT. 16, 23 Catch the final two segments of the Moyers PBS series, “On Our Own Terms” from 3:30-5:00 pm on KPTS Public Television in Wichita (channel 8). The Wichita Caring Communities Council will staff the LIFE Project HelpLine phone bank during the re-broadcast. Consumers may call 1-888-202-LIFE toll-free with questions during the program.
OCT. 9 The LIFE Project will sponsor a 90-minute TeleConference on “Rapid Cycle Change” from 10:00-11:30 am (CST). Marie Schall, Collaborative Director with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement will share information on how to use rapid cycles of innovation and measurement, a method that will enable healthcare professionals to improve pain management and assessment practices in a relatively short period of time, generally within a few months. This teleconference is currently available to only the facilities participating in the LIFE Project Pain Protocol Project, however; if there is enough interest, the training event may be repeated. Contact Stacie at the Project office for more information or by email: stacie@lifeproject.org.
OCT. 12-13 Southwind Hospice, Inc., of Pratt will host an abbreviated EPEC physician training on Oct. 12 from 5:30 – 9:30 pm and on Oct. 13 from 8:00 am – 12:30 pm. Five modules from the EPEC training will be covered at this time; additional modules from the program will be held at a later date. Please contact Sharon Will at (620) 672-7553 for registration information.
OCT. 13 & 27 AARP of Kansas will host Caring Conversations workshops in Wichita. These workshops are designed to ensure that each individual’s end-of-life care can be accomplished in a supportive environment, according to Donna Travis, AARP Caring Conversations Volunteer. The first workshop will be Oct. 13 from 10:00-3:00 at Hillside Christian Church, 8330 E. Douglas. A repeat workshop will be held Oct. 27 from 10:00-3:00 at First Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway. A notary will be on hand for those participants who want to complete Advance Directives during the workshop. The registration fee is $15 per person plus $10 for bringing along any number of “conversation partners.” (Total not to exceed $25) The fee includes a box lunch. Persons can register for the workshops beginning September 23 by calling toll-free 1-877-926-8300. Please contact the AARP state office at (785) 228-2557 for more information.
NOV. 1 The Good Samaritan Village in Winfield has invited Dr. Bob Twillman from the University of Kansas Medical Center and the Kansas Pain Initiative to present a brief pain management lecture. The focus of his talk will be “How to Assess Pain in Cognitively Impaired Patients.” Four (4) nursing CEU’s will be offered. Please contact Connie Schaefer at (620) 221-4660 for registration information.
* If you have any announcements to add to our calendar, please forward them to Stacie Ogborn by the 10th of the month: LIFE Project, 1901 University, Wichita, KS 67212, Fax # (316) 263-6542, or submit them by email to: stacie@lifeproject.org.