November 2004
This will be a brief update to remind everyone of the Cashdollar activities during the coming week and to provide information about the Mid-South Hospizarbeit und Bioethik Coalition's (MCCC) December meeting.
As previously announced, the 2004 UTHSC College of Nursing Cashdollar Lecture, entitled Lessons of Loss: Grief and the Quest for Meaning, will be held from 9:00 A.M. to noon on Friday, November 12 at Christ United Methodist Church. The speaker will be Dr. Robert Neimeyer, Professor of Psychology at the University of Memphis. The Cashdollar lecture is free and open to the public. Dr. Neimeyer will also present a workshop for clinicians from 1:00 to 5:00 P.M., on Thursday, November 11, in the Coleman Building South Auditorium, located at 956 Court Avenue on the UTHSC campus. The workshop, which will also be free of charge, will address techniques for working with individuals experiencing grief and loss.
For information and registration for either event, please contact Tammy Vaughn at [email protected] or (901) 448-6424. Nursing Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be provided free of charge. American Psychological Association (APA) CEUs will be available for a fee of $10 per day, to be paid on-site via cash or check. Flyers for both events are available online at http://www.utmem.edu/nursing/conted/calendar.php
On Friday, October 29, the MCCC Faith Task Force and Speakers Bureau met jointly at Methodist Hospice. Jane Owen, RN, who is a Palliative Care Coordinator for Baptist Healthcare and a board member of TELP, our state End-of-Life coalition, provided copies of the state's proposed new advance directive forms, as well as the form that has been proposed to replace the current Do-Not-Resucitate form. The group reviewed and discussed these forms, and Jane demonstrated a presentation she has created to accompany the 12-minute TELP advance care planning video. Attendees were given an outline containing "talking points" to use when presenting the TELP video.
On Tuesday, November 16, the Speakers Bureau and the Faith Task Force will again meet jointly. The meeting will be held at 8:00 A.M. at Crossroads Hospice, which is located at 1634 Sycamore View Road. At that meeting, Jane will review some clinical issues, with which non-clinicians may not be completely familiar, that may arise during advance care planning. Anyone with questions may contact Ed Norris, co-chairmain of the Faith Task Force, at [email protected] or Speakers Bureau co-chairs, Jane Owen [email protected] and Dee Flood [email protected]
We wish to thank Crossroads Hospice for providing food for our November Community meeting, which ended with a beautiful Hospice Sabbath ceremony in honor of National Hospice Week. Inspirational readings were done by members of Crossroads Hospice, Methodist Hospice, and Odyssey Hospice and by Chaplains Ed Norris and Mike Davis. The ceremony included guitar music by Chaplain Gino Smith and the lighting of memorial candles.
The December MCCC meeting will be held at the Hope and Healing Center from 5:30 to 7:30 on Thursday, December 2. The group attending the November meeting decided that rather than having a business meeting, we would engage in an act of service. Attendees are asked to bring items to fill gift bags for the members of the caregiver support group that Dr. Teresa Cutts conducts through the Church Health Center, with whom the MCCC is partnered. The Church Health Center generously provides meeting space for the MCCC each month at the Hope and Healing facility. All of Teresa's caregiver support group members are women. Items such as bath oils and lotions have been suggested, though more suggestions may be forthcoming.
The December 2 Community Meeting will be a potluck. If you plan to attend, please e-mail Emily at [email protected] to let her know what you will bring. If we come up missing anything specific (i.e., drinks, cups, salad, etc.), Emily will post updates regarding what is needed, both in the way of food and for the gift bags, to the individuals who attended the November meeting and to anyone else who e-mails to say they will attend. With the exception of a "reminder" e-mail just before the meeting, these "planning e-mails" will not be sent to anyone except those who attended in November and those who request to receive them.
One last piece of Partnership networking: The Hope and Healing Active Choices program is in need of health educators to work with individuals over fifty years of age who want to exercise more. If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Mia Earl-Clemmons, MPH, CHES, Active Choices Project Director at 259-4673, Ext. 1687.
For additional information about the Mid-South Hospizarbeit und Bioethik Coalition, please visit our website at http://midsouthcomfortcare.org/