Aloha Jeannette,

A Happy New Year to all of you! Here's wishing all of us a peaceful, kind and inspiring 2023.

We have exciting events lined up for the months of January and February.

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

Wed 1/18 Palliative Pupus

You are invited to join us Palliative Pupus, our exciting local networking and clinical education opportunity. If you are involved with palliative care cases or would like to learn what palliative care actually is, you are invited.

This month we’ll hear about the challenges in providing palliative care for a hospitalized young adult with a devastating neurological injury from our colleagues at Pali Momi.

Wed. Jan 18

5:15 pm – 6:15pm

Register in advance for Palliative Pupus zoom meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Thur 1/26/23 Kōkua Mau Meeting

Optimizing Advance Care Planning Billing and Coding & Updates on Proposed Reimbursement Models for Palliative Care Services

Please join us on January 26 for a presentation by Torrie Fields, CEO at Votive Health and Strategic Advisor to C-TAC. This session helps social workers and their teams understand how to get reimbursed for advance care planning services and document for qualified visits. She will discuss additional reimbursement opportunities for palliative care providers and their teams through current state policy efforts to expand access to team-based palliative care services for QUEST beneficiaries. 

Thur Jan 26, 2023

3:00-5:00 PM (HST)

Register in advance for the January monthly meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with details on how to join the zoom meeting.

Psychedelic Medicine & Palliative Care - recording available

If you missed our Dec 1, 2022 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. Details on our website.

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.

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. 

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. 

The beginning of the year is 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.

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

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

1/16/23 Virtual Death Café

The 27th (Virtual) Death Café Honolulu:

Mon Jan 16 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.

1/17 Understanding Elder Care: Levels of Care and Options in Hawaiʻi

Tue Jan 17

12:00 noon HST

The goal of this presentation is to help people faced with care decisions become familiar with the various levels of care and the type of options appropriate for each. 

Speakers: Kokua Mau Board member Laurie T.S. Adamshick, Esq., Elder Law Attorney, and J. Mike Meyer, RN, CCM, Certified Elder Care Coordinator. Sponsored by the Aloha Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Go to tinyurl.com/JAN1723HI  to register.

1/25 Caring with Presence

A Mindful Approach to Caring for Someone Living with Dementia

Wed Jan 25, 2023

10-11:30 am HST      

Presenter: Michelle Barclay, M.A., National Dementia Expert and Trainer, President and Co-Founder of The Barclay Group, LLC. Minneapolis, Minnesota

Advance Registration is required at this link:

The Zoom link & handout will be sent to registrants before the session. It will be sent from this email, not from EventBrite. Sorry, no CEʻs or Certificates are available for these presentations.

• Download the flyer for details

1/25 How Life Care Planning Can Help You Take Care of Mom and Dad...and Yourself

Wed Jan 25, 2023

11:30 am HST  

This presentation will introduce Life Care Planning, a holistic, innovative planning approach that can help prepare adult children for the legal, financial and other challenges they will likely face when caring for an older parent.

Speakers: Elder Law Attorneys Laurie T.S. Adamshick, Esq., and Thomas A. Rulon, Esq., and Certified Elder Care Coordinator J. Mike Meyer, RN, CCM. Sponsored by AARP. Go to https://events.aarp.org/HI1-25 to register.

1/26 The Cost of Aging in Place

Thur Jan 26

12:00 noon HST

The goal of this presentation is to shed light on important factors, beyond financial expense, that comprise the often-overlooked costs of aging in place.

Speakers: Laurie T.S. Adamshick, Esq., Elder Law Attorney, and J. Mike Meyer, RN, CCM, Elder Care Coordinator. Sponsored by the Aloha Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Go to tinyurl.com/JAN26AIPC to register.

1/26+ Historic Cemeteries in Hawai‘i Lecture Series 

Expert presenters will lead us on a journey of six historic cemeteries in Hawai‘i describing their histories and what makes them significant.

Jan 26+ Virtually Thursdays

12:00 to 1:00 p.m

• Mission Houses Cemetery (1823), Honolulu, Oʻahu
• Mauna ‘Ala Royal Mausoleum (1867), Nu‘uanu, Oʻahu
• Mo‘ili‘ili Japanese Cemetery (1908), Mo‘ili‘ili, Oʻahu
• Hōlualoa Korean Association Cemetery (1917), Hōlualoa, Hawai‘i Island
• Arizona Memorial (1941) and the Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (1949), Pearl Harbor, Oʻahu
• Cemeteries of Kalaupapa National Historic Park (1866), Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi

The series will be held virtually Thursdays from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. between January 26 and March 2, 2023. The annual series is a cooperative program between HHF and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Historic Preservation Graduate Certificate Program.

Registration will open later in January 2023 at www.historichawaii.org.

Sun 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.

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