From:

Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America
Newsletter #2

Contents:

1. Rallying Around Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America

2. Free Release from Knight-Ridder/Tribune!

3. Before You Pick up the Phone: Tips for Contacting Your Local Newspapers

4. Topics Addressed in October Issues

5. Ways to Get Involved

6. A Helping Hand

7. Keep us Informed!

1. RALLYING AROUND Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America
In previous issues of the newsletter, we introduced you to Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America This is a 15-week series of articles on specific end-of-life issues written especially for newspapers and distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune running from September through December. Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America is coordinated by Partnership for Caring, Last Acts, the Center for Advanced Illness Coordinated Care/VA Healthcare Network – Upstate New York at Albany, and the Center for Death Education and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin. This series will offer compelling personal stories and state-of-the-art information from national leaders in the medical, social, spiritual and cultural aspects of death and dying. We will utilize this newsletter to bring you information about the series and the topics it will address to help you organize community efforts around this project.

2. FREE RELEASE FROM KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE!
Knight Ridder/Tribune has decided to release the Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America series to all newspapers for free! This decision will significantly expand the reach of these articles into communities across the country. Knight Ridder/Tribune realized the great interest that is present nationally for information on end-of-life issues and they know that small, local papers have a tremendous reach into their communities. Knight- Ridder/Tribune concluded that cost could be an obstacle to these smaller papers being able to run the series and therefore they decided to offer the series to all newspapers at no cost. What a generous act and a tremendous opportunity for us to expand our outreach around this series!

3. BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE PHONE: TIPS FOR CONTACTING YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPERS
Many newspapers across the country will be interested in running this groundbreaking series, especially now that it will be offered free of charge. Determine the local newspapers with which you want to make contact. Find out who the editor is and set up a time to go and talk to him or her. Prepare a packet of materials to send or to take with you. Assign a spokesperson on your coalition to undertake this effort. This is not one of those situations where our cause will be better served by the bombardment approach.

Let the editor know about your coalition, who sits on it and how you all came to be organized around end-of-life issues. Explain what the Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America series is and how it is intended to roll out. Let them know that your coalition is organizing around this series and that you would be happy to act as a resource for the paper, helping to find local interest stories that will tie in with the series’ articles. Remember, your coalition has the benefit of several months advance notice that this series is coming. Make the most of this time by organizing your efforts and making your local papers aware that the series is coming.

It is extremely important that your coalition make contacting your local newspapers a priority in your action plan. Newspapers will be more inclined to run a series in which they feel the community they serve has a keen interest -- let them know that your coalition is aware that this series is being offered and that you are organizing around it.

4. ISSUES ADDRESSED IN OCTOBER
On October 1st the series will focus on palliative care, discussing managing pain and other symptoms. Russell Portenoy’s article entitled, “Palliative Care: Pain and Symptom Control” will focus on ways to access appropriate pain management and advocate for symptom management in your hospital.

On October 8th the topic will be planning for care at the end of life. Robert Bendiksen and Bernard Hammes will co-author an article called “Advance Directives: Taking Control of the ‘how’” which will discuss health care proxies, living wills and do not resuscitate (DNR) orders for hospitals and non-hospitals as well as managing informed consent.

The October 15th article will tackle the subject of culture and diversity. LaVera Crawley will author “Culture and Diversity: Breaking Down Barriers” discussing medical culture and ethnic values, overcoming barriers and honoring one’s heritage.

On October 22nd the focus will be on spirituality and faith. Martha Rutland-Wallis and Hugh Maddry will write “Spirituality and Faith: Finding Peace,” an article that touches on defining spirituality and faith as they relate to end-of-life issues and the Gallup poll on spirituality at the end of life.

The last topic covered in October will focus on last rites – respecting a life, acknowledging a death. This article, written by Thomas Lynch, the poet-undertaker featured in “On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying,” is titled, “Last Rites: Deconstructing the Funeral,” and will be published on October 29th. The article will discuss contemporary funeral practices in America and the rite of separation, incorporation and integration involved in the funeral.

5. WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
October’s articles are full of great topics around which you can mobilize your coalition. For instance, for the October 1st article on palliative care, you can hold a Pain and Palliative Care Summit at your local hospital with health care professionals, doctors, hospital administrators, public officials and the general public to discuss issues surrounding pain management in your community and what can be done to improve the way pain is addressed.

(Partnership for Caring will be launching a national "No-Pain, All-Gain!" educational campaign and we will provide you with their materials.)

In preparation for the summit, each of your coalition's members can talk with his or her own doctor about the series and your work to improve care and caring for dying individuals and their families. Invite your doctor's input.

For the article discussing planning for care at the end of life, your coalition could work with your mayor’s office to declare the week of October 8th “Advance Directive Signing Week,” and encourage the mayor and his or her spouse to sign their advance directives on camera.

The article on culture and diversity offers your coalition a wonderful opportunity to sponsor a public forum bringing together representatives from different ethnic groups to discuss their culture’s attitudes and traditions around the end of life. This forum could include representatives from the faith community, funeral directors, business leaders, hospice workers and hospital administrators and/or doctors. The forum could be of great interest to your local media and you should consider inviting them to cover the event.

In an era when "spiritual" doesn't necessarily mean "religious," the article on spirituality and faith poses a marvelous opportunity to discuss what spirituality and faith mean - how are they alike, how are they different? Your coalition could work with a local bookstore to do a display of books addressing spirituality and host discussion groups at the bookstore or public library. Compassion Sabbath, a program developed by the Midwest Bioethics Center, might be something you'd like to try to implement in your community. (For more information, contact bioethic@midbio.org) What about asking professors of theology and philosophy to host a public forum to discuss spirituality and how to provide spiritual counsel for dying people and their families?

And for the article discussing last rites, you could put together information on local roadside memorials and “official memorials” in your community. Invite your local media to explore the different ways people mark the significance of someone's life and passing. Interesting stories could include those on the ways various cultures and religions memorialize someone important in their lives as well as family rituals to mark the passing of a loved one.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. Get your coalition together with copies of these newsletters releasing the weekly topics for the series and brainstorm ways to get involved!

6. A HELPING HAND
As you know, we will release the subjects for the series articles within these newsletters and we will continue to provide you with suggestions for ways to use this series as a rallying point for activity within your community. Know that we are here to help in any way we can. If you have any questions about the series or the outreach surrounding it, please contact us at steeringcommittees@bballard.com.

7. KEEP US INFORMED!
We want to know what you are doing in your community on end-of-life issues. Are you part of a community coalition? Did it begin with or participate in the outreach surrounding "On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying"? What are your plans for incorporating Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America into your efforts? Do you have experience or stories that you would like to share with community coalitions rallying around Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America? Let us know by sending an email to steeringcommittees@bballard.com. We would love to support your efforts by sharing your insight and experience with others.

We've had a request from Susan Issacs in Springfield, OR who is just beginning to develop a community coalition there. Susan has asked if any of you have advice for her. What were some of the pitfalls or setbacks you encountered? What were some of your successes? Do you have some advice for Susan? Contact us at steeringcommittees@bballard.com and we'll share your thoughts - not only with Susan but with the rest of the coalitions as well.
 

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