Finding the Right Messages for Serious Illness Care By Larry Beresford

Almost everyone involved in serious illness care agrees the field has an identity problem. Palliative care, hospice, and advance care planning are often poorly understood by consumers, the public, and even healthcare professionals. The resulting confusion can keep people who need those critical services from accessing or accepting them.

Developing clear and consistent messages that will penetrate misconceptions and unlock barriers to care for patients and families is the goal of the Message Lab, a project funded by the John A. Hartford and Cambia Health Foundations.

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Hospice Professionals Rediscover Resilience in their Work

By Larry Beresford 

Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, hospice and palliative care professionals are tired and struggling under the constraints of PPE, changes in how care is delivered, and the knowledge that some patients under quarantine in care facilities may be dying alone. 

Community-based care teams are facing difficulties not seen in the field since the AIDS epidemic, said Carla Cheatham, MA, MDiv, PhD, chair of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) Ethics Advisory Council, and a leader in workplace resilience programs through her Carla Cheatham Consulting Group.

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What I Learned From Off-the-Charts Pain By Jennifer Moore Ballentine

A week after my first chemo infusion for breast cancer, I woke up feeling like I’d been beaten with sticks. By mid-morning, my temperature was 103^◦ and I headed to the ER. By the time I was admitted with neutropenic fever, I was discovering the true meaning of the phrase “My head is about to explode.”

The pain was unbelievable. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t see, I could barely hear what seemed like a parade of disembodied voices offering this or that remedy, all of which had exactly zero effect on the pain.

The morphine had an effect—but not the desired one. The only thing that helped at all, the only thing that got me through the next 48 hours, was a CD player, headphones, and the neoclassical dark wave group Dead Can Dance on continuous replay.

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Managing Pain in Advanced Illness Takes Personalized Approach, Expert Says ‘Revolution’ in Pain Management is Whole Person, Patient-Centered Care, Not an Overdependence on Opioids

By Melanie Marshall

Managing pain in people with advanced illnesses requires a whole person approach, not just a prescription, said Jeffrey Sears, DO, Director of Pain Management at Hackley Hospital Pain Management Center, in Muskegon, Mich.

Sears said pain management is a fundamental skill needed in every practice, but many clinicians don’t feel confident managing chronic or acute pain. The ongoing opioid epidemic has contributed to that uneasiness, he said.

Building clinical skills, knowledge, and confidence in pain management is crucial. Untreated pain can ruin a patient’s quality of life and overwhelm them, their loved ones, and caregivers, said Sears, who is board certified by the American Academy of Pain Management. [Read more…] about Managing Pain in Advanced Illness Takes Personalized Approach, Expert Says