LIFEline January, 2003
Living Initiatives For End-of-Life Care
United Methodist Health Ministry Fund grant will support continuing focus on end-of-life care in Kansas
On December 30, 2002, the LIFE Project was awarded a three-year, $315,230 grant by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund (UMHMF). Endowed in 1986 by the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church, the Fund advances health, healing and wholeness throughout Kansas.
According to Donna Bales, President and CEO of the LIFE Project, “This is good news for all citizens for which the LIFE Project serves as an advocate for better care. UMHMF has supported the work of the LIFE Project during its first five years, and the award of this grant supports our future initiatives.”
The grant comes at a time when the LIFE Project has announced plans to implement a statewide campaign called, “Every Kansas should expect good pain management!” The LIFE Project is also proceeding with a program to bring support services and consultation to its Caring Communities, LIFE’s 25 local coalitions located all across the state. Encouraging and supporting Kansans as they engage in advance care planning, which calls for reflection, conversation and action, is also an important initiative of the Project and will continue.
During the past five years, the LIFE Project Partners have worked together to understand end-of-life issues, plan for action, educate healthcare professionals, improve public policy, and increase public awareness about end-of-life issues. “Fortunately,” says Bales, “Kansans live in a state where many, many groups, organizations, institutions, individuals and key leaders are working and serving as advocates for those who are most vulnerable and least able to speak for themselves – those who are near the end of their lives. How these last weeks and months are spent makes a tremendous difference – not only to the Kansans nearing the end of life, but to all who love and care for them. UMHMF’s grant to the LIFE Project Foundation is a gift to all Kansans.”
LIFE PROJECT WELCOMES NEW CARING COMMUNITIES
New coalitions are actively engaged in LaCrosse/Rush County and Larned/Pawnee County
Dianne Morse, a real estate broker in LaCrosse, is on a mission to improve end-of-life care in Rush County. Dianne’s experiences, and that of other citizens in Rush County, have led her to become a passionate activist in supporting quality care. Morse has led in the formation of the Rush County Caring Community, and together with Donna Schmidt, from Farmer’s Bank & Trust in LaCrosse, she is actively recruiting leadership for the new coalition. Creating access to hospice care for citizens of Rush County is their top priority, and Morse knows there are other issues facing this rural Kansas community. She will be utilizing the Rallying Points Certificate Program to bring expertise and consultation to the group as they plan together.
The Larned Caring Community held its first meeting last month to determine the needs of the community. Max Harder, Executive Director of the Community Health Organization, is heading up the core group in Larned. Group members are identifying best ways to serve the needs of the aging population in Pawnee County. Members of this new council are hoping to address end-of-life issues in a wholistic way, whereby body, mind and spirit are all served. JoVeta Wescott, Manager of the Parish Nursing Program at the Center for Congregational Health Ministry at Via Christi and active member of the Wichita LIFE Project Council, has been working with Larned and other communities to develop action plans and recruit leadership. We want to express our sincere gratitude to JoVeta for her efforts to engage more and more Kansans with the work of LIFE Project.
We welcome these new communities to the LIFE Project! If your community is interested in convening a council to address end-of-life issues or if you are interested in meeting with those communities already engaged, please call Donna Bales or Stacie Ogborn at the LIFE Project, (316) 263-6380. We have resources and a toolkit to get you started and would be happy to work with others who share the mission of the LIFE Project: Helping all Kansans live with dignity, comfort and peace at the end of life.
CARING COMMUNITIES MOVING AHEAD WITH STRATEGIC PLANS
LIFE Project leaders will provide expertise and resources as communities seek to improve end-of-life care
LIFE Project Caring Communities have been working for over six months to develop a strategic plan for creatively engaging key leadership, sharing resources and strengthening their presence and leadership within their communities. LIFE Project staff and numerous experts from a variety of LIFE Project Partner organizations will soon begin traveling to Caring Communities all across Kansas. These leaders will work with local Caring Community leaders in strategic planning, in furthering the “Every Kansan should expect good pain management!” campaign, in more fully engaging the faith community leaders, in training and networking with parish nurses and in other specially designed programs.
During the next two years, these interventions will occur all across Kansas, and LIFEline will post them under the calendar of events. In the near future, LIFE is planning late February planning meetings in southwest Kansas, with leaders from Dodge City, Liberal and Garden City Caring Communities. Final details are being made now and all Caring Communities will be notified soon.
The LIFE Project expresses special thanks to the following community leaders:
* Julie Pinkerton, Clinical Coordinator of Hospice of the Prairie, Dodge City. Julie is the chair of the Dodge City coalition and is working with the LIFE Project to schedule and tailor this program to meets the needs of the community council.
* Linda Miller, MSW, Southwest Medical Center, Liberal. Linda is the key contact for the Liberal Caring Community.
* Marsha Hudson, State of Kansas Regional Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Marsha is key contact for the newly-formed Garden City Caring Community.
The LIFE Project is also working on planning meetings in Northwest Kansas and details will be forthcoming.
LIFE PROJECT NAMES NEW TASK GROUP ON PAIN MANAGEMENT
Leaders convene to plan continuing strategic action to improve pain management
LIFE Project leaders and the Kansas Pain Initiative met together on January 17 to discuss ongoing plans to address pain management in the state. Mary Bennett, Outreach Director with the American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives, joined the group. As an outgrowth of this meeting, the LIFE Project has named a LIFE Project Pain Management Task Group. The Kansas Pain Initiative named a key group of leaders, many of whom have given much leadership to the LIFE Project already, to serve as a steering committee for the task group. As always, all LIFE Project Partners will be invited to participate in the task group and all will be updated on the work of the group.
Bob Twillman, Kansas Pain Initiative and KU Pain Management Specialist, and Cathy Pimple, Assistant Professor, Emporia State University, will serve as co-chairs of the LIFE Project Pain Management Task Group. Others who will serve on the Steering Committee include:
Vicki Fell, Program Director, Hand in Hand Homecare and Hospice, Emporia
Midge Pelch, RN, Hand in Hand Homecare and Hospice, Emporia
Connie Rundle, American Cancer Society – Heartland Division, Topeka
Mary Flott, PharmD, Newman Regional Health, Emporia
If any LIFE Project Partner would like to join the work of this group, please contact Donna Bales at donna@lifeproject.org. All are welcome! Thanks to the energy, vision and leadership brought by these leaders.
The LIFE Project Pain Management Task Group will meet on Friday, March 28 from 10:00 a.m. until Noon. The meeting will be held at the American Cancer Society office in Topeka, 1315 SW Arrowhead Rd.
PRATT HOSTS SPIRITUALITY WORKSHOP
Steve Jeffers facilitates discussion with faith community leaders
South Wind Hospice was the host for “Providing Spiritual Care at the End of Life,” a one-day workshop presented on December 9. Steve Jeffers, PhD, Director of The Institute for Spirituality in Health at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, led morning sessions on “Spiritual Care: A Helping Encounter in the Dimension of Ultimate Concern,” and “Grief Ministry: Light For a Dark Journey.” Diane Johnson, LMSW, Executive Director of South Wind Hospice, and Tom Harrison, Chaplain of South Wind Hospice, conducted a session titled “Hospice Care and Hospice Bereavement.” Thirteen local pastors attended.
****UPDATES, NOTES and UPCOMING OF EVENTS****
* The LIFE Project Public Policy Task Group will meet January 30 in the Board Room at the Kansas Medical Society, 623 SW 10th, Suite 100, Topeka. The meeting will be from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon. If you are interested in attending and would like a copy of the agenda, please contact June at the LIFE Project.
* As a part of LIFE’s work with pain management issues, Donna Bales and Bob Twillman will be serving on the Nursing Home Quality Improvement Project of the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care, a LIFE Project Partner.
* The Kansas State Board of Nursing newsletter featured a complete update on the LIFE Project press briefing held October 22, 2002, which announced the “Joint Policy Statement on the Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain.” The January-February-March 2003 issue of the “Kansas Nursing Newsletter” is available online at http://www.ksbn.org/nursingnewsletter/2003/1qtr2003.pdf (see page 9 for full article).
February 7, 2003 Midwest Bioethics Center has invited Kansas City-area end-of-life organizations working in older adult care, end-of-life care, disease specific organizations and palliative care units as well as members of the city's Long-Term Care Ethics Consortium to meet at 8:00 a.m. Friday, Feb. 7, at the historic Webster House in Kansas City. The purpose of the meeting is to coordinate activities and encourage use of the Rallying Points Certificate Program. The program is open to all. For details, contact Jacqueline Talman at Midwest Bioethics Center (816) 221-1100, ext. 220; email: jtalman@midbio.org.
February 16, 2003 The Kansas Pharmacists Association will present “Pharmaceutical Care in Long-Term Care” at the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center, 6100 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS. Presenters include LIFE Project Partner Melanie Simpson, RN, BA, BSN, OCN, CHPN, Pain Management Resource Team, KU Medical Center. Call KphA for more details, (800) 279-9300.
NOTE: 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.