Hope is looking for a new place to live

Our own Hope Young is looking for housing. Her rental is being sold out from under her and she is looking for dog friendly housing for her and her husband on the East Side of Oʻahu (Kalihi to Hawaii Kai). Please contact her directly if you have any leads.  2-3 bedroom is preferred. 

Prognostication and Palliative Care - recording available

If you missed Dr. Daniel Fischbergʻs presentation on Prognostication, please watch the recording.

Estimating and communicating prognosis, while often challenging, is often an essential part of care for those living with serious illness. Patients, family members, and providers, all need good prognostic information on which to base important decisions.

New Videos on our Kōkua Mau YouTube Channel

In case you missed our meetings we add new videos to our YouTube channel:

• Prognostication and Palliative Care
• LymphaCare Hawaii
• Palliative Care – Extra Support for People with Cancer
• A Caregivers Journey with Palliative Care
• VA Resources for Seriously Ill Veterans in Hawaii
• More

11/9 Webinar: Help Your Seriously Ill Patients Get the Best Care Possible

In honor of National National Hospice & Palliative Care Month in November 

Register for a Free, Interactive CE Webinar.

Wed Nov 9

12:00-1:00 PM

Register here. Non-members of Hi-ANA will need to make a free account to attend this webinar, once registered you will receive the Zoom invite confirmation. 

Presenters: Dan Weiss, DNP, RN, CHP, Kōkua Mau Member, Adjunct Nursing Faculty Chaminade University

And Kōkua Mauʻs own Jeannette Koijane, MPH Executive Director.

Join or renew your membership now

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

Now is a great time in 2022 to renew your membership or join Kōkua Mau as a first-time member. Your support is what makes Kōkua Mau possible. We thank you for being part of our movement to improve care. Wondering when your membership runs out? Just send Jeannette an email and she can let you know. 

Membership of individuals and organizations empower us to do our work. Your financial support is crucial: we raise every penny we spend (with your help). Our Organizational and Individual members supporting us are listed on our website.

5 easy options to support us

We have a rolling membership system so if you join now, your membership will last for the next 12 months. Click here for membership levels

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

10/12 A 7-Week, Online Workshop for Personal Growth & Development on End-of-Life Care, Death, and Grief

This course, Integrating Living and Dying, presents topics many of us would like to be more comfortable with, making them approachable and applicable to life. 

Presented by Laura Miner, CT, a certified end-of-life care educator, mentor, and former hospice worker with over 20 years' experience in the field. She is a member and certified Thanatologist of ADEC, (the Association for Death Education and Counseling, CT# 18176). 

Laura brings a lightness of spirit to a subject that can be challenging to discuss, drawing on her personal experiences with the dying. Attendees have reported feeling more logistically and emotionally prepared as well as a "little more richness and depth coloring" their present moments as a result of attending the classes. 

Classes include writing exercises, guided contemplation for conceptualizing the dying process, and discussion. Topics covered include facing our own death and those of others, hospice ins and outs, loss ritual, holding vigil, advance care planning, grief, medical aid in dying, signs of approaching death, and compassionately meeting the needs of the dying. All beliefs are respected. All are welcome.

Registration: Register online here 

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

Classes meet Wednesdays and Fridays online, via Zoom @ 11am Hawaii time, for 7 weeks, starting October 12th, 2022. Cost is $610

Thur 10/19 Dementia Care Activities and Engagement: 

Using Play to Deal with Challenging Behaviors

Oct 19, 2022

10:00-11:00 am HST

Creating truly meaningful activities for those living with dementia can be an increasingly difficult task over time. Being disengaged can lead to many challenging behaviors and situations for people living with dementia and their caregivers.

Registration includes access to the live webinar and on-demand content.

• HAH Members: $15 per person
• Non-Members: $35 per person

Detail on their registration page

Fri 10/20 Free Online Advance Care Planning Classes

Register and attend with your family and friends to learn the importance of advance care planning.

Key areas of discussion include:

• Why it is important to have early conversations on your wishes with your loved ones.
• How to complete an advance directive, understanding the role of a health care power of attorney and choosing wisely.
• Reviewing the difference between an advance directive and Provider Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) document.
• Sharing the information with your loved ones and medical providers.

PLEASE NOTE: At this time, classes are only available via Zoom virtual classroom. Register with your email address and you will receive a Zoom link. Space is limited.

Online classes are available on the following dates and times:

Tue, October 20, 2022 from 5:30 to 7:00p.m.

Wed, Nov 9, 2022 from 12 to 1:30p.m.

Thur, Dec 1, 2022 from 3to 4:30p.m.

Register today for this free event: HawaiiPacificHealth.org/ACP-Registration. If you have further questions, email Michelle Cantillo, RN, Advance Care Planning Coordinator,

at Michelle.Cantillo@HawaiiPacificHealth.org or call 808-643-HOPE and select Option 2 to speak with a navigator to learn more about this class.

Recording of Palliative Care: Choices and Personal Preferences

A recording of Palliative Care: Choices and Personal Preferences with our own Kōkua Mau member Dr. Geoff Galbraith is now available. Please click HERE to access the recording and download the presentation for your reference.

The is part of the excellent 2022 Pacific Cancer Project ECHO series, which covers a wide range of topics. Kōkua Mau has been collaborating for the ECHO series focusing no the Pacific for cover 10 years. If you would like to participate in future Pacific Cancer ECHO series, please Register in advance to join.  These ECHO sessions are free and open to all. 

Your feedback is needed to plan for Kupuna issues

It’s important that your voice is heard and your organization is represented in the Area Plan on Aging.

The Plan will serve as a guidance document not only for the various Area Agencies on Aging, but also other entities that care for kupuna as we continue to support plan implementation and work toward the same goals.

The survey is only 10 questions and takes just a few minutes to complete. Those that complete the survey will be entered into a drawing to win prizes! Please respond by October 31.

Click here to provide your feedback.

Survey about actual and perceived shortages in Oncology

The Hawaii Society of Clinical Oncology (HSCO) is starting a new project looking at the oncology workforce in Hawaii. Please help us spread the word about this survey. 

The Building a Sustainable Oncology Workforce in Hawaii seeks to assess the extent of the multidisciplinary oncology workforce shortage including physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, social workers, and pharmacists. This program will examine both the shortage in the Hawaii oncology workforce and the uneven distribution of the existing workforce.

The project hopes to:

• Quantify the full scope of the oncology workforce shortage
• Identify barriers to recruitment and retention of the oncology workforce
• Develop policy recommendations for local, state, and federal officials that can be used to address the shortage
• Devise recommendations and strategies for health systems and managed care organizations to support oncology workforce recruitment and retention efforts in Hawaii

The first phase of the project includes a landscape analysis of actual and perceived shortages. To do this, HSCOʻs survey should be completed by all oncology providers and managers, regardless of membership in HSCO. We will have a preliminary report out of the data during the Annual Meeting on Saturday, November 5. 

Participation in the survey from all oncology providers is imperative. Please take a few minutes to complete their survey and all responses are anonymous. The information collected with also help inform the next steps of the project, so quality data is key to this project. Please complete by Oct. 17.

Wed 11/16 Advance Care Planning Clinic Classes

This class is offered for physicians, nurses, social workers and other clinicians. It promotes ACP introductions and will review key elements and processes related to ACP, Advance Directives and POLST in the clinic.

Course Objectives:

1. Apply ACP resources to promote advance care planning discussions.
2. Promote patients’ knowledge of advance directives including healthcare power of attorney designation.
3. Describe the differences between an Advance Directive and Provider Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) and implement correct documentation of these documents.
4. Implement and standardize ACP processes in the clinic.
5. Identify the Hawai‘i requirements of Medical Aid in Dying, Our Care, Our Choice Act.

Wed 11/16/2022

First Insurance Center (FIC)

862 South Beretania Street, FIC 980

Honolulu

Registrations are limited. Indoor mask mandate is still require

HPH Employees: Manager’s Approval is required prior to registering AND register online through the HPH Learning Center (HLC). Type in the Catalog: ACP; Select Course: HPH – Advance Care Planning (ACP) Clinic Class.

Non-HPH Participants: Register by emailing Michelle Cantillo, RN, HPH ACP Coordinator at michelle.cantillo@hawaiipacifichealth.org.

Grief, Guilt and Men - Dr. Baugher spoke in Hawai'i

If you missed the September 2022 Bereavement Network of Hawaiiʻs (BNOH) quarterly training with Dr. Bob Baugher in a useful and information session on speaking about guilt and grief, you can now watch the recording. 

LymphaCare Hawaii advocates for cancer survivors who develop lymphedema on our YouTube channel now

Louise Tanswell (Ellie) RN LMT CLT-LANA and Rocky Lee, Breast Cancer Survivor from LymphaCare Hawaii presented at our August 2022 Kōkua Mau monthly meeting. Watch the video

LymphaCare Hawaii advocates for cancer survivors who develop lymphedema (LE). These survivors are often “the forgotten ones” who suffer in silence, because their medical team is not taking their symptoms seriously. Watch the video and take a closer look at the problem and how LymphaCare is taking action to help!

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