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April 2021

 SEPTEMBER 2023
INELDA Newsletter - Notes for the Journey
NEWS MEDIA THE 5-MINUTE READ PRACTICE CORNER CALENDAR

Hudson Valley hospice: A model in end-of-life care

Loren Talbot

After Char Fraske retired from teaching, her “heart found its way to hospice,” and in 2016, she joined the volunteer training program at Hudson Valley Hospice (HVH). Her involvement with the hospice started with her doing therapy-dog work—she even once brought her horse Toby to the home of a housebound patient. Fraske received additional training to become an end-of-life doula through a partnership between the hospice and INELDA. After serving in this role over the recent years, Fraske says her relationship to her doula work is steadfast. “I see it as a gift. I see it as a blessing. I see it as an honor….To be invited into a patient’s life at the end of their journey is something you cannot explain.” Cultivating an environment where this transformative work can happen is at the core of the doula program at HVH.

Doula Profile
Garrett Drew Ellis, Beyond Morning LLC.

Garret Drew Ellis is an end-of-life doula who is based in Columbia, PA. He is the owner of Beyond Morning LLC. Beyond Morning is a death-support and storytelling organization that exists to help individuals remember, record, share, and celebrate their life’s story before the moment of death arrives. Then, when death is imminent, Ellis offers compassionate care and support through the death doula model.

Q&A with Garrett
Why did you decide to become an end-of-life doula?
I have had experiences with traumatic loss and grief from a very young age and found myself either always dealing with or supporting others in grief. I found the practice of writing and journaling at the same time and began a career teaching others how to write for their own mental health, as well as ghostwriting memoirs for them.
My two passions of writing and death work came together two years before taking the INELDA class, when I saw an Instagram post about Henry Fersko-Weiss’ book, Caring for the Dying. I ordered it immediately. After reading it, it was as if my chest cracked open in the most beautiful way. I knew that I could take my experience, as well as the teachings of doulas like Henry, and offer something tangible to the world. Even more, I began to dream that I could bring my two passions together: writing and death service. I knew that I was called to write for the dying while supporting them at the end.
Contact Garrett Image
[email protected] \\ FB: @Beyondmorning \\ IG: @Beyond_morning
 News
Differences Between Sexes Affects Brain Diseases

According to a March 2021 article in APL Bioengineering men and women are impacted differently by brain diseases, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. This may relate to differences in the way the blood-brain barrier is built and behaves in men and women.

Medical Aid in Dying Advances
In March there were several medical aid in dying (MAiD) advances:

* In New Mexico the state legislature passed the Elizabeth Whitefield End-of-Life Options Act, that will be signed into law by Governor Lujan Grisham, making New Mexico  the ninth state, along with Washington D.C., to pass MAiD legislation.

Older Adults Prescribed Fall-Risk Medications at Alarming Rate
A study released last month in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety found that as of 2017 94% of adults 65 or older were prescribed a medication that increases their risk for falls. This is an alarming jump from the 57% prescribed these medications in 1999.
Home Care Agencies Plan for Greater Diversity in 2021
According to a report released earlier this year by home health care tech company Axxess, more than 70% of the organizations they surveyed will increase resources this year devoted to staff diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. And 91% of the larger organizations that include home health care agencies and hospices indicate that they are focused and working on this issue.

MEDIA OF THE MONTH

Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America’s Poets Responds to the Pandemic
Lisa Feldstein
In times of upheaval, the arts help us comprehend events and find meaning. Picasso’s Guernica, for example, conveys the horror of war in a way that news reporting could not. Art can also shock us into an engagement with events by forcefully presenting them in a way we can’t ignore. The 1963 photograph of Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức’s self-immolation requires us to witness the lengths to which human beings will go to defend their beliefs.
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New guidelines for nursing home visits
Henry Fersko-Weiss
New visitation guidelines for nursing homes were issued on March 10th by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
These new guidelines, an update to ones in place since September of 2020, make it easier for people to visit nursing home residents regardless of vaccination status and even when some residents have tested positive for COVID-19 under conditions clearly spelled out by CMS.
dei work moves forward – with your help
Lisa Feldstein
INELDA is looking for volunteers who are willing and able to add their voices and expertise to our efforts to build a more Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive end-of-life doula community. Interested in lending a hand? Read on.
Last fall we convened a BIPOC Advisory Council, called the Council for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI). CEDI is actively engaged in both advising INELDA, as well as donating its members’ knowledge and experience in more hands-on ways. To better tackle the numerous and complex issues CEDI is addressing, we are expanding its size.
PRACTICE CORNER
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TOOLBOX TIPS

I have taught the benefits of music therapy with end-of-life patients for years. If they are nonverbal, I try to find out from their family what they loved to listen to, or play music from the years they were young. If you aren’t sure, try different types of music.

Look for positive responses – smiling, swaying, nodding – even a negative response is a sign to try something different. Be cognizant of hearing difficulties when setting the volume, join-in and singalong! It will create bonding moments, as well as make caregiving much more enjoyable for both of you! Music has such a positive effect on depression, engagement with others, and life review. I have found that Frank Sinatra, gospel, and classical music are the requests I most often receive.

– Melissa Plourde, LSW, CDP

SHARING SOURCES

Portland Institute for Loss and Transition

 

Portland Institute for Loss and Transition was founded by Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD. in 2018 with

 the understanding that the death of a significant person or relationship often ushers in powerful symptoms of sadness and uncertainty. The Institute offers a unique global perspective on grief work with an international staff that hails from eleven countries in Asia, Europe, and North America.

ASK INELDA

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Are there any cultures, subcultures, or individuals for whom the term “doula” should not be used or a better word used? Does anyone have thoughts or knowledge on this? – C.T.

Jamie: I have been called a doula, midwife, a coach, a specialist, journey woman, soul care giver. Any term that works for them works for me. I am careful when engaging in conversation to do a lot of  describing when I talk about the work I do. I don’t always use the word “doula.” Sometimes people get scared by language, words can push people back. I describe what I do and let the language catch up to the description. I have not run into anyone that the word doula has offended, but I let my description of what I do lead.


Christy: I would add to choose the words that feel authentic to you and the work you are doing. From a business perspective, you may consider the terminology that is out there, so people can recognize what you do.

Please submit questions to [email protected]

 

UPCOMING EVENTS
28
APR
Call Me Selfish: The Art of Self Care 
Find ways to extend to ourselves the compassion and care we so thoughtfully extend to others.
 5
MAy
Peer Mentoring 
First Wednesday of every month. We will discuss creative ways to find and work with clients.
 

The Final Word
Voyages

Shut off the music, the lights, close the window and travel,

let your body gather voices as if they’re flowers

in an infinite garden, thank your spirit

for the flight, thank the earth

for the echoes and empathy, for emptying your fears of time past,

be certain of your direction, your heart knows the road,

the one with needles under your feet that feels less painful

than all the dying around, the one that is made of water

where floating is a long and short breath,

and always be kind to the healing earth,

don’t be tempted by its roars which are its pains,

let the ache out, gather all your selves

angel and bird ancestor and bark,

gather your wanderings so you can rest for a while,

then awake to help those who didn’t make it back.

—Nathalie Handal
^^^

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