February 2005

Our February program was presented by Dennis Hamilton, General Manager of Memorial Park Funeral Services.  Mr. Hamilton was accompanied by two of his funeral directors.  Mr. Hamilton's presentation covered services offered by Memorial Park, the genreal costs of funerals and cremations, and the interface of the funeral homes with hospitals, hospices, and the tissue bank.
 
Faith Group:  Ed Norris announced that Christopher Church, PhD, had agreed to speak to a joint meeting of the Faith Group and the Speakers Bureau. Dr. Church is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Baptist College of Health Sciences and president of the Board of Directors of the Mid-South Biomedical Ethics Center.   Reverend Tom Momberg expressed his interest in our using the Caring Conversations materials with faith communities, nursing homes, and senior centers.  These materials were developed by the Midwest Bioethics Center (now the Center for Practical Bioethics), the Midwest Regional Resource Center for Rallying Points.  Emily Fox-Hill announced that the grant proposal the MCCC recently submitted to the H.W. Durham Foundation included a request for funds to purchase the Caring Conversations materials.  In response to a call from Tom about exploring ways for us to learn about how the Caring Conversations materials had developed and used, John Carney, Vice-President for Aging and End-of-Life for the Center for Practical Bioethics, suggested that a conference call might be arranged.
 
Speakers Bureau:  Dee Flood announced that the Speakers Bureau is now prepared to do presentations on advance care planning.  She said a meeting had been scheduled to discuss how requests for speakers would be handled and how information about our available presentations could be disseminated.
 
Communications Committee:  Paul Mosteller discussed the list of names of organizations that the Communications Committee is developing.  The plan is to send out announcements about the MCCC and about presentations our Speakers Bureau is available to present.  Dan Rojecwicz reported that he had spoken with Andy Wise about the possibility of creating public service announcements for us.  Mr. Wise was not certain whether he would be able to do the PSAs because of his current contract and suggested that Dan contact Jeff Ganus.  Diana Dralle is working on publicity material, including a brochure.  Odyssey Hospice has donated a display board for the display Diana is developing.  Jane Owen suggested that we contact the Baptist Women's Hospital about doing presentations for them, and that we also schedule time to present at Hope and Healing.
 
Advance Care Planning:  Jane passed out copies of the newly approved state advance directive forms, which can be either notarized, or simply witnessed.  She announced that the State Attorney General had still not ruled on the proposed physician order (POST) form.