End-of-Life – The HPP Resource Center

Category: End-of-Life

Validation Q&A with the Authors

Guidance from the Authors on Using Validation Are you currently using the Validation method in your care setting? Do you have questions? Authors of The Validation Breakthrough, Fourth Edition, Naomi Feil and Vicki de Klerk-Rubin, answer some frequently asked questions from people using Validation. New to Validation? Learn more here! I’ve tried Validation, but my client won’t talk with me. Why doesn’t it work? Which Validation techniques did you use? Did you Center and establish the phase of Resolution? If the older adult is in Phase Three, verbal techniques may not work. If your client feels…

Validation FAQs

What is the Validation method? Validation is a method for communicating with older adults who are diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. It is based on an attitude of respect and empathy for older adults with Alzheimer’s-type dementia who are struggling to resolve unfinished business before they die. Validation suggests a way of classifying the behaviors of these disoriented older adults and offers simple, practical techniques that help them restore dignity and avoid deteriorating into a vegetative state. Caregivers practicing the Validation method become empathetic listeners, who do not judge the person, but accept their view of reality.

Tips for Mealtimes with the Namaste Care Program

The Namaste Care™ program is a holistic end-of-life care program for people with advanced dementia. This approach affirms the individuality and enduring spirit of each person through comforting and meaningful sensory-based experiences. Namaste Care ensures that people receive specialized services and activities that are meaningful at this stage of their lives. The emphasis is not on the number of days left in a person’s life, but on the quality of those days. Here are some tips on how care partners can make dining a pleasurable experience, even if the person needs extensive cueing or can no longer eat independently. Helping…

Supporting Staff in Long-Term Care as They Grieve the Deaths of Their Residents from COVID-19

By Mary Kaplan, M.S.W., LCSW Although death, dying, and grief are day-to-day experiences in the working lives of long-term care staff, the recent surge in the numbers of residents in these settings dying from COVID-19 has led to a cumulative burden of ongoing grief. The emotional impact of each loss for these caregivers is compounded by their own risk for contracting and spreading the virus and the lack of organizational attention to their emotional needs. Approximately 40 percent of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, a statistic that…

Hospice: How It Started and What It Has Become

Read the book! The Hospice Team Who We Are and How We Care Edited by Rabbi Dr. Chaim Joseph Wender, F.LBC, and Patricia Ellen Morrison, L.C.S.W. Copyright © 2019 by Health Professions Press, Inc. All rights reserved. This series of 21 essays from 9 disciplines of hospice care will give you an inside look into what hospice truly is and the many ways in which the hospice team cares for those who are approaching the end of life. Learn more…

Integrative Therapy: Compassionate Touch in Hospice Care

By Shannon Noble, Integrative Therapist and Volunteer Coordinator. This post has been adapted from The Hospice Team: Who We Are and How We Care. Over the years that I have worked in hospice services, first as an integrative therapist and then as a volunteer coordinator, the two most common responses when people learn about what I do for a living are, “It must be very depressing work,” or, “One must be an angel to work for hospice.” Both are untrue, and I hope, through my perspective working with hospice patients and their volunteers, to shed light on the…

Reframing Healing as a Physician in Hospice Care

This post was adapted from an essay appearing in The Hospice Team: Who We Are and How We Care. By Faustino Gonzalez, MD, Chief Medical Officer The concept of healing has always been associated with cure of disease. Healing is, in fact, the goal of medicine. As a physician trained in Internal Medicine, I spent the first fourteen years of my professional life applying my skills toward that goal. When I started working in hospice and palliative care, my focus became comfort and symptom control. Did I abandon my mandate? Did I fail Hippocrates? I do not think so. In his famous essay, from which…

Messages for Dorothy

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, and HPP will be joining organizations across the nation to raise awareness for hospice and demonstrate its importance. In our Hospice Perspectives Series, people share their stories of hospice care. While these stories do feature death, they also feature profound hope, compassion, comfort, and joy. They will touch your heart and provide invaluable insight into palliative care and the end of life. This story is written by Linda Watson, former pastoral and supportive care professional, and author of Facing Death: A Companion in Words and Images. She was given six weeks to…

Matthew’s Last Days

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, and HPP will be joining organizations across the nation to raise awareness for hospice and demonstrate its importance. In our Hospice Perspectives Series, people share their stories of hospice care. While these stories do feature death, they also feature profound hope, compassion, comfort, and joy. They will touch your heart and provide invaluable insight into palliative care and the end of life. This story is written by Joyce Simard, social worker, internationally recognized speaker, author, and creator of the Namaste Care™ program. Life has a way of leading you down…

In My Own Voice: Pre-death Restlessness

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, and HPP will be joining organizations across the nation to raise awareness for hospice and demonstrate its importance. In our Hospice Perspectives Series, people share their stories of hospice care. While these stories do feature death, they also feature profound hope, compassion, comfort, and joy. They will touch your heart and provide invaluable insight into palliative care and the end of life. This perspective is written by Eve Joseph, M.A., a longtime hospice counselor and hospital social worker. She is also an acclaimed poet. “So, you are the one who is going…

1
2
Next
Last

Resource Center

Serving Professionals in Aging and Elder Care