Aloha Jeannette,

As another amazing year comes to a close, we are so grateful and honored to work with the amazing people of Kōkua Mau.  Your dedication to improving care for those with serious illness is inspiring and the key reason that our unique coalition continues to thrive after 22 years.  

Thank you for your personal and professional support – offering wisdom, insights, a willing ear and humor despite everything.

We would like to thank all of our members. You can see a listing of them on the website which includes organizations and individuals who are been supporters from the beginning and others who have joined this year. Our amazing hui will continue to expand and improve with your help and engagement. (Yes, there is always time to renew, increase or join Kōkua Mau.) 

2023 will be a busy year, especially if we can begin the new Palliative Care benefit for MedQuest members which is currently waiting CMS approval.  I hope that all of you can enjoy some time over the holidays for time with friends and loved ones, time for yourself to recharge, swims in the ocean and a chance to marvel at the place we live. Lucky we live Hawaii.  

Happy Holidays

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” — Albus Dumbledore

Join, Renew or Increase your Membership Now

All our Organizational and Individual members are listed on our website.

Thank You supporters and members for keeping Kōkua Mau strong and serving our community. Since 1999, Kōkua Mau has been a trusted voice for outstanding care and services in Hawaiʻi, supporting those with serious illness, their loved ones and those who care for them. 

Now at the end-of-the-year might be a great time to support Kōkua Mau. As an independent non-profit, over 80% of our budget comes from generous membership of organizations and people like you. if you are in the position to make end of the year contributions we hope you consider Kōkua Mau.

We have a rolling membership system so if you join now, your membership will last for the next 12 months. Wondering when your membership runs out? Just send Jeannette an email and she can let you know. Click here for membership levels.

5 easy options to support us

1. Donate with PayPal Giving Fund and 100% goes to Kōkua Mau with a few clicks. Click here for the dedicated PayPal link
2. Go online using Network for Good and donate with a credit card. You can set up a monthly recurring donation, by spreading payments out throughout the year and making it easier for us to plan.
3. Through Aloha United Way – Designation Code 80410
4. Benevity – please check if your employer (like United HealthCare) offers matching donations through the Benevity platform. 
5. A check in the US postal mail – 3 steps:

• One: Payable to ‘Kōkua Mau‘ with ‘membership‘ in the memo field
• Two: Address to: Kōkua Mau • PO Box 62155 • Honolulu HI 96839
• Three: Stick on a stamp and put in the mailbox

Mahalo

Many thanks to the Amazing Care Network Foundation for their generous $10,000 grant to support our outreach and education to undeserved populations. This will allow us to strengthen and expand our work to help people understand the value of timely advance care planning, the benefits of palliative care and what hospice really can offer. We look forward to expanding this work, especially as we hopefully begin the new MedQuest Palliative Care benefit in 2023. 

Psychedelic Medicine & Palliative Care - recording available

If you missed our Dec 1 special guest Dr. Ilan Bernstein, a recording titled "Psychedelic Medicine & Palliative Care: An Exploration of Old and Ancient Therapies To Address Twenty-First Century Clinical Challenges" is available.

Dr. Ilan Bernstein joined the Pain and Palliative Care Dept at the Queen’s Medical Center as a staff physician in 2013. Dr. Bernstein graduated from the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 2008 and is currently board certified in Internal Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is an assistant clinical professor in the departments of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at JABSOM. Dr. Bernstein is a member of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

If you are interested in reading more about psilosybin and serious illness care, here is an article by Dr. Ira Byock on the CAP website. Additionally, Dr. Bernstein was a co-author on an journal article Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians should know about Psychedelic-Assisted therapy in the context of serious illness.

For testimonials, you might also be interested in the Nova special that was mentioned in Dr Bernstein's prensentation: How Psychedelics Change the Brain

World AIDS Day

A hybrid World AIDS Day 2022 meeting was hosted by Church of the Crossroads. Recording available

VA Resources added on our Website

Thanks to Kōkua Mau board member Dr. Emese Somogyi we now have two resource pages dedicated to help professionals and their loved ones navigate the VA. 

• A Resources for Veterans and their Loved Ones

• VA Resources for Health Care Providers

A Caregivers Journey with Palliative Care 3-minute video

A moving caregiver’s testimony about her and her husband’s cancer journey and palliative care. Living on Maui, Andrea talks story about how they accessed palliative care in Honolulu and at home (This shortened version is thanks to the editing suggestions of our Kōkua Mau volunteer extraordinaire Rachel.) Watch the video on our YouTube Channel.

1/10/2023+ A 7-Week, Online, End-of-Life Educational Course, 'What Matters In the End'

This course, 'WHAT MATTERS IN THE END', provides approachable and applicable tools for living life with an increased awareness of death, dying, and grief. 

Register (and more details) online here 



Or please email Laura with questions and/or to register at lauracminer@gmail.com

Classes meet Tuesdays and Thusdays online, via Zoom @ 1pm Hawaii time, for 7 weeks, starting January 10th, 2023

1/11/2023 Hawaii State of Reform Health Policy Conference

The 2023 Hawaii State of Reform Health Policy Conference is back and Kōkua Mau members can get a 30% discount using KokuaMau30. Discount ends on Dec 30, 2022.

This yearʻs event will take place in-person at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on January 11th, 2023.

Like many things in Hawaiʻi, health care is different from the continental US. The seventh annual Hawaii State of Reform Health Policy Conference will foster a dialog about the opportunities and challenges facing health care in our unique region at a time of increasing change. This conference will bring together industry experts and policymakers from across the state.

1/16/23 Virtual Death Café

The 27th (Virtual) Death Café Honolulu:

Monday, January 16th, 2023

6-8pm HST.

Note that this is on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Please RSVP to this email (groundgivesway@gmail.com) and they will send you the link for the meeting. They will be using Zoom for the Virtual Death Café.

January 2023 marks 8 years since Death Café Honolulu started meeting! The first one was held on Saturday, January 24th, 2015 at Nā Mea Hawaiʻi!!!

Mahalo to everyone who has supported this project over the years.

Save the date: 2/12/23 Exploring Jewish views of the afterlife: Contemporary Implications

Sun Feb 12 2023

5:00-7:00 PM PST 

Zoom meeting ID #852 5777 6358 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85257776358

With Reb Simcha Raphael, Ph.D., Founding Director of the DA’AT Institute for Death Awareness, Advocacy and Training.

Does Judaism believe in the afterlife? Unequivocally, the answer is yes! Unfortunately, in contemporary Jewish life we have lost touch with traditional Jewish wisdom on the afterlife. Yet in the traditions of Jewish mysticism are found extensive teachings on the afterlife journey of the soul. Through an exploration of sacred texts, story-telling and discussion, we shall explore these teachings and discover applications of Jewish views of the afterlife in responding to the human encounter with death.

Change in 2022: PAs can now sign POLST in Hawaiʻi 

We just learned that Physician Assistants are able to sign POLST in Hawaiʻi. In the coming months, we will be updating forms and educational materials but here are the details for the time being. All POLST forms are still valid.

The information is from the Hawaii Academy of Physician Assistants:

Act 293 (HB1575 HD2 SB2) was signed into law on July 12, 2022. Among other expansions to physician assistant (PA) scope of practice, Act 293 amends Hawaii Revised Statutes 327K-1 and 327K-3 to include PAs as providers.

In doing so, Act 293 adds PAs to physicians and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) as providers authorized to execute a POLST in Hawai'i. Hawai'i is now the 33rd state to allow PAs to sign a POLST. For more information about PA practice in Hawaiʻi, please visit the Hawaii Academy of PAs.

Community News

Shantell Cruz who has been an Admission Nurse with Navian Hawaii has recently been promoted to Admission Manager.

Congratulations to Dr. Pat Nishimoto for her recent (book) Chapter 27 "Cancer Related Sexual & Reproductive Issues" in Cancer Basics published by the Oncology Nursing Society.

Community News

We want to salute our own Dr. Libby Char who was named the Public Health Healthcare Hero. Libby has been a long time supporter of Kōkua Mau and serves on the POLST Task Force. Here is the link to the whole healthcare hero award listing, which includes links to the videos.

Congratulations to Shelley Johnstone, Continuing care Nurse at Kaiser for being named a Healthcare Hero for 2022 by the Healthcare Association of Hawaii. You can watch a video with Shelley and the family that she helped including enrolling in hospice

Congratulations to Dr. Melanie Payanal, Medical Director at St. Francis Hospice, for completing her Hospice Medical Director Certification.  

Resource: Serious Illness Messaging Toolkit

seriousillnessmessaging.org focuses on Evidence-Based Messaging for Serious Illness Care. Capture public interest, bypass misconceptions, and increase demand for your services with better messaging.

The webinar Messaging Principles for Serious Illness Care launching the toolkit with Dr. Anthony Back and Marian Grant is now available as a recording.

They built this toolkit because they want to change how the public views serious illness care - so that more people experience the benefits of our work. Based on empirical research and decades of experience, they’ve developed resources that can help any health communicator effectively write content and hold positive conversations with the general public about the benefits of advance care planning, palliative care, and hospice.

Pōhai Mālama Care Center (Hilo) Takes a Tactical Pause

We are sharing this news from our member Hawaii Care Choices: Pōhai Mālama Care Center (in Hilo Hawaiʻi) will pause all inpatient hospice care operations beginning on November 18, 2022. Hawaii Care Choices remains open and continues to offer all services. Details on their website.

New Resources to Help Clinicians Cope With Moral Distress, Grief, and Trauma-Emotional PPE

The challenges of working in the U.S. health care system have been an existential threat to clinician well-being for years. The pandemic has only exacerbated the pressures health care workers face.

CAPC's new Emotional PPE toolkit provides resources that clinicians and teams can use to support well-being. Most resources in this toolkit are open to all.

What's in the toolkit?

• Whether you have 5 minutes or 60 minutes, there are tools, activities, videos, and practices to help bridge the gap if you are struggling
• Wellness planning resources for team leaders to cultivate safety and advocate for change
• Articles and research on Emotional PPE
• Relevant CAPC events