Speakers Bureau

Hospice Topics

Hospice 101: A broad look at how hospice works to benefit patients and their families confronted with a life-limiting illness.

Hospice Volunteering: Describes the role a layperson can play as a part of the hospice team to support patients and families facing a life-limiting illness.

Respecting Choices: A discussion about having conversations about your medical treatment in the event that you can’t speak for yourself, sharing your values and writing a plan that helps ensure that your health care choices are respected.

Hospice in the Nursing Home: A common misunderstanding is that hospice care is for patients living at home. For some, a nursing home is “home.” Hospice care enhances the quality of life for nursing home patients facing life-limiting illnesses.

How to be a Helpful Listener: Active listening skills are actually a rare commodity in our culture, and perhaps the most important skill to have in supporting an individual or family in crisis.

Making the Road Less Lonely: You don’t have to be a hospice volunteer to help a friend or family member with terminal disease. We will share some of the knowledge we have gained over the years on how to help when this crisis comes into someone’s life.

Hard Choices for Loving People: A discussion of “hard choices” families are often faced with as they receive and participate in health care.

Caregiver Support and Education Series: This series offers the family caregiver valuable information to aid them as they provide care for a loved one.

Coping for Caregivers: This program offers the family caregiver valuable information on the rewards of caring for their loved one.

Depression with Chronic Illness: Individuals can learn signs and symptoms of depression and how to adjust to chronic illness.

The Other Side of Pain Control: Understanding pain management.

Stress Management: Teaches how to identify stress and ways to handle stress.

Spiritual Care Topics

Clergy and Hospice: Defines the roles of clergy, hospice chaplains and spiritual support personnel.

How to Minister to Those Who are Ill: Learn how to minister to those who are at the end of life.

Nutrition Topics

Nutritional Care and Feeding for Comfort: A practical experience in the art of feeding patients at the end of life. Comfort eating / feeding methods will be reviewed

Discussing End-of-Life Nutrition and Hydration Issues: Learn how to facilitate discussions about end of life artificial nutrition and hydration with patients and families.

Grief Topics

An Overview of Grief: Program will identify normal grief reactions and offer ways to help a grieving individual.

Children / Teen Grief: Program will examine similarities and differences in the ways children and adults grieve.

Complicated Grief: Some factors, often beyond our control, can make the grief process even more challenging. This presentation will examine those factors and some potential outcomes.

Connection Without Overload: Designed for the healthcare professional. This session looks at how to remain compassionate when coping with chronic or terminal illness, dying and death.

Grief in the Workplace: Designed to build an understanding of loss in employee lives while reducing the impact on work performance.

Parental Loss: Losing a child is like no other loss. This presentation will focus on the grieving process.

The Importance of Ritual: This presentation will include some simple memorials that will highlight meaning and celebration of your loved ones life.

What to Say: People are often at a loss for words in the presence of those who are dying and grieving. This session will explore what is helpful to say...and not to say.

Why We Grieve Differently: People grieve differently and have different ways of expressing grief. This program will explore the various responses of grief.

Writing and Grief: One of the ways grief can be expressed is through a variety of writing methods: journaling, storytelling and poetry. For those inclined to write about their experience, here are some starting points.

Emotional Responses to Dying: Identify the different reactions and ways of supporting these responses.