VOLUNTEER SUPPORT GROUP - SAVE THE DATE

Monday, MARCH 2, 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 Rm.

CELEBRATE SOCIAL WORKERS IN MARCH

In 1963, the National Assoc. of Social Workers launched a TV ad campaign to generate interest in the profession of social work and to encourage public support. In 1984, the White House officially recognized March as the month to celebrate. Social work professionals use psychology and sociology to improve individual's lives and advocate on their behalf. In hospice care, they provide holistic support for the family and address the psychosocial, financial, and spiritual aspects of the end-of-life journey. Their role typically involves:

• Completing a patient assessment within five days of admission;
• Assisting with preparing forms for an advance directive, do not resuscitate (DNR) order, or a physician order for life-sustaining treatment (POLST);
• Contacting resource organizations such as Meals-on-Wheels or Life Alert;
• Helping to fill out and file insurance, Medicare and Medicaid paperwork; and address funeral planning.

Here's a quick read about the power of everyday moments in hospice care, written by social worker Chris Gooding, LCSW-C: "How Hospice Social Workers Create Everyday Moments That Matter".

ARTICLE: TRIGGERED BY A CELEBRITY'S DEATH?

BY: REBECCA SOFFER (Modern Loss)

Public figures are deeply connected to our own lives and grieving their loss can be complicated. The article provides a basic roadmap to help make sense of the overwhelming and sometimes surprising grief we may feel when a celebrity dies. Advice from grief counselors provides 7 valuable ways we can care for ourselves and those we love in the aftermath. Click here to read. Rebecca Soffer is the co-founder of Modern Loss, an online blog dedicated to candid conversations about death, grief and community, and navigating the long arc of loss and resilience. 

MUSIC (YouTube): GOIN' HOME

BY: LIBERA

(4:32 minutes)

"Goin' Home" (or "Going Home") is a world-renowned song based on Czech composer Anton Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (the Largo second movement). Dvorak composed the melody in 1893 while serving as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. His student William Arms Fisher wrote an original song (in 1922) set to Dvorak's music. The lyrics reflect themes of nostalgia and finding peace at the end of life. The song is a frequent choice for secular funerals and memorial services and has been recorded by numerous prominent artists including bass-baritone Paul Robeson; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; and The Tabernacle Choir.  Watch this moving music video, an arrangement performed by Libera, a celebrated all-boy English choir (also known as Angel Voices). 

ARTICLE: IN HAMNET, GRIEF ISOLATES AND ART CONNECTS - On Grief, Loss, and How Art Makes Meaning

BY: ELISABETH J. LAMOTTE, LICSW (Psychology Today, Feb. 18, 2026)

"Hamnet", Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed 2020 novel and the 2025 film adaptation directed by Chloé Zhao, explore the deep emotional grief of Agnes and William Shakespeare following the death of Hamnet, their 11-year-old son (from the bubonic plague). Portraying the profound impact that heartbreak can have on family dynamics, LaMotte, a clinical social worker, writes that Hamnet exquisitely traces "how each private sorrow moves through a family — reshaping marriage, identity, and meaning. It asks a question therapists know well: What happens to love in the face of unimaginable loss?" The article addresses the pain of bereavement and its transformative power -- which culminates in Shakespeare's creation of the play Hamlet. Click here to read the article. You can also watch the Official Trailer for this Academy Awards nominated film (2:39 minutes).

POEM: ANTICIPATORY GRIEF (excerpts)

BY: RACHEL BERNHARDT

The quiet heartbreak that begins

long before the final goodbye.

The ache of watching someone fade.

Of already missing them,

even as they’re still here.

Grief is sneaky.

It shows up in texts you don’t answer.

In rage you can’t explain.

In the silence after everyone else has “moved on”.

But you’re not doing it wrong.

You’re not cold for feeling detached.

You’re not selfish for needing a break.

You’re not broken for falling apart before it’s over.

Anticipatory grief is the love that already knows

what it’s about to lose.

I invite you to let it move through you --

however strange, fierce, or quiet that looks. 

ARTICLE: IT'S TIME TO GET MORE COMFORTABLE WITH TALKING ABOUT DYING

BY: ANNA LAMB (The Harvard Gazette, February 3, 2026) 

"More than 90 percent of Americans believe that we should be able to talk about death and dying, according to a recent poll. But only 27 percent were comfortable doing it, and 31 percent were uneasy about contemplating their own mortality," begins this article. Even so, three palliative care physicians at Harvard-affiliated hospitals believe things may be starting to change and offer advice for end-of-life conversations between patients and loved ones. “I go back to the Hawaiian ho’oponopono, said Carine Davila, palliative care physician at Mass General. “‘I love you. Thank you. I forgive you, and please forgive me.’ Those four things are a good piece of advice, or a go-to.” According to Davila, these four jumping-off points can work no matter what state a patient is in, whether sleepy, unconscious, or having a fleeting moment of strength. And, each physician shared a version of the same philosophy to make sure important things don’t go left unsaid when it is time to say goodbye. Click here to read (6-minutes).

Ho’oponopono is a traditional Hawaiian practice of forgiveness and reconciliation, gratitude, and love. It translates into English simply as correction, or "to put right".  It consists of four phrases: “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.”  It is a way to acknowledge responsibility for our actions, ask for forgiveness, express gratitude, and cultivate love to promote healing, both personally and in relationships with others. 

BLOG: WHIMPERS AND TEARS IN THE ACTIVELY DYING

BY: BARBARA KARNES, RN (4-minute read)

Families often replay the final moments of a loved one’s life, searching for meaning in every sound, expression, or tear. Drawing from being at the bedside of hundreds of deaths, award winning end-of-life educator Barbara Karnes, explains that what we witness at the moment of death or in the hours before death, is generally just normal body actions -- a part of the natural, physical way a person dies. Click to read more. Karnes is the author of the most widely used patient/family educational booklet on the signs of approaching death, entitled "Gone from My Sight: The Dying Experience".