VOLUNTEER SUPPORT GROUP - SAVE THE DATE!

Monday, FEBRUARY 2, from 5:00-6:30 PM 

Please mark your calendars to attend our next Volunteer Support Group. You have an important role in our caregiving team and these monthly groups provide essential support for your knowledge base and your well-being. Come and enhance your skills and competencies, and gain insights from our shared experiences about this deeply rewarding work. Light refreshments will be provided, and RSVPs are appreciated. Location: Kauai Hospice Conference Room.

YOUTUBE VIDEO: INTEGRATIVE CARE - KAUAI HOSPICE

BY: JULIANA GRIGOROVA, BA, RN, INC (Integrative Nurse Coach)

(30-minutes)

For many years, Kauai Hospice has integrated diverse complementary therapies as an additional dimension of care to improve patient comfort and quality of life. Recently, our hospice and palliative care nurse Juliana (also our first Integrative Care Nurse), has produced a brief video about Integrative Care with the first episode in the series addressing Healing Touch (HT). Integrative Medicine includes a variety of therapy techniques that support our body's natural ability to heal. It integrates conventional approaches and complimentary holistic therapies for optimal health and healing.

Episode 1 on Healing Touch consists of 3 interviews and a demonstration of the HT technique -- a heart-centered, biofield (energy) therapy that uses gentle touch or near-body hand movements to balance and clear the human energy system. Click here to watch. The "Integrative Care" video is also airing on HOIKE- Kauai's Community Channel and on their website www.hoike.org (under the "Live & On-Demand" section). Historically, HT was developed in 1989 by registered nurse Janet Mentgen, as a complementary practice used alongside traditional medical care. Practitioners undergo a multi-level training program and certification is offered by several organizations. It is used by over 30,000 nurses annually in clinical settings. 

GOOD QUOTES:

EXCERPT from "Hospice May Offer Patients with Cancer Some Peace, Comfort and Control" by Alex Biese

(CURE Winter 2025, Volume 24, Issue 4)

"Hospice is a service — not a diagnosis. People don't die of hospice; it's not a condition that you fix, it's a service… that can help people who have needs, especially in advanced stages of their disease. In hospice care, the best outcome will be someone has excellent terminal care. They're comfortable, they're not in pain, and they get to leave this Earth on their terms. For all of us, that's the best that we can hope for, because we don't decide how we come into this world, and very few of us will decide how we leave this world. And this is an opportunity to really put that together in a way that's meaningful to you and the people you leave behind." SOURCE.

~ Michael K. Wong is the physician-in-chief at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY and a member of CURE’s advisory board.

TEDx VIDEO: 3 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU DIE

BY: LUYI KATHY ZHANG, MD

(15:22 minutes)

What if the secret to living a meaningful and fulfilling life is asking the right questions before it's too late? Hospice and palliative care physician Luyi Kathy Zhang, has comforted thousands of dying patients and held space for their secrets, regrets, and final wishes, witnessing the profound clarity and transformation that comes with facing the end of life. She explores what dying teaches us about truly living and shares these life-changing insights so people can benefit from them before they reach their deathbeds. Dr. Zhang uses her coaching expertise to share practical, neuroscience-based steps to empower people to transform their lives without the pain and suffering of facing one's mortality. She hopes one day, death will no longer be feared but instead embraced as the catalyst for a better life. Click to watch this deeply personal and thought-provoking video. 

GOOD QUOTES: CREATING AN ALTAR FOR DEATH – How a small altar can bring clarity, connection and calm

BY: SARAH KERR, PhD, Founder of The Centre for Sacred Deathcare

"When someone is dying, we often look for something to hold onto, some way to bring clarity, steadiness, and meaning into an experience that can feel overwhelming. One of the simplest and most powerful tools I’ve found is the practice of building an altar.

An altar gives form to what is otherwise hard to grasp. It brings the imaginal into the physical world. It helps the dying orient toward what’s ahead, and it helps loved ones find a sense of direction in the midst of uncertainty. Altars like these can soften fear, deepen connection, and give everyone involved a way to meet the mystery together."

FAMOUS FINAL LAST WORDS:

Final words are often notoriously difficult to verify, and these are some that are almost certainly somewhat inaccurate:

“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”

            – Irish Playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Records indicate the famously witty Wilde did once utter a similar phrase. Confined to the dingy Hôtel d'Alsace in Paris due to misfortune and poverty, he joked to a visiting friend a few weeks before he died: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go."  

“Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.”

           – German Composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

These are much-disputed last words, and the phrase was typically used to end a performance of 'dell'arte' (an Italian comedy play) in Beethoven's day. However, in the book "Memories of Beethoven" by Gerhard von Breuning, evidence indicates: “It is a complete myth that Beethoven said to me 'Plaudite amici, comoedia finita est'."

“I should have never switched from Scotch to Martinis.”

           – Actor Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957)

This line first appeared in the 1975 novel “What Are the Bugles Blowing For?” which was unconnected with Bogart, but later attributed to him. According to his wife Lauren Bacall, his final words were, "Goodbye, kid. Hurry back." when she left his bedside at the hospital to attend to their children, before he slipped into a coma. 

TEDx VIDEO: THE PARADOX OF GRIEF

BY: JULIA SAMUEL, MBE

(11:10 minutes)

Julia Samuel is a leading British psychotherapist specializing in grief and bereavement with over 30 years of experience. She shares that many of us as children, learned that denial was the only way to manage sadness and loss. We will all grieve, yet we turn away from facing death, and are therefore ignorant and unable to help ourselves when it does happen. On the other hand, pain is the curative part of grief; it is how we heal. Grieving is a form of learning, and that pain is actually the agent of change. We adapt and grow through loss. We learn that the very thing we least want to do, is the very thing we most need to do. When we allow ourselves to grieve, we also discover that our love for the person who dies remains, and even grows. So, yes, when it comes to grief, pain can do good. Watch this insightful video.

BLOG: WHY "NOT NOW" IS STILL A DECISION

BY: BARBARA KARNES, RN

When it comes to death and dying and preparing Advanced Directives, most of us are ostriches, our heads in the sand, stuck in a "not me or anyone close to me" kind of denial. There is a “not now, I don’t want to talk about it” mentality. Is it a fear that exploring the possibilities of our own death will bring us closer to death? I don’t know, BUT I do know we are a death-denying society. It might feel like other people die but not anyone close to us — until it does — then we are so unprepared. In being unprepared, our finances and day to day issues are unaddressed. Our medical and quality of living "wants and don’t wants" are unaddressed. All these important decisions are now placed on family and significant others. This is a heavy burden for them as they are faced with making life and death decisions for YOU. This is why we all need to have advance directives (living wills) that explains our finances, our health, and eventual end of life options. How we want to live if we can’t manage ourselves? How do we want the ending of our life to look and feel? Continue reading…