Recently Published!!
by Maryclaire Torinus
Surviving Hospice: A Chaplain's Journey into the Big Business of Dying Plus: How To Find a Trustworthy Hospice
This narrative is an insider’s look into the hijacking of hospice by private equity and professional investors and the subsequent harm to patients, their families, and to the interdisciplinary clinical teams. It was released by a NYC publisher on October 31, 2023. For sale on Amazon.
The author, a hospice chaplain, tells end-of-life stories of her patients who were harmed by financially-motivated policies. This is a book for anyone who is embarking on making a choice about a hospice for their loved one, working chaplains, those in training, and those interested in what dying is like with a hospice who places patients as their primary stakeholders.
Maryclaire's experience working for an owner who sold to a private equity firm helped her to realize that the reputation and viability of hospice is in jeopardy. Her goal is to alert all who love hospice to rid it of professional investors.
— Stacy Juba, author, editor, and award-winning health journalist
"Powerful, beautifully written, and eye-opening, this book spotlights the inner workings of a multi-billion-dollar industry and the effect on patients, families, and hospice staff. The author shares poignant accounts of hospice at its best and worst and the hard-hitting truths she learned on her journey. A must-read for family members exploring hospice care."
— Laura Kukowski, CEO, editor, For-Profit Badger Hospice, LLC
"Maryclaire Torinus speaks with authority, providing this essential handbook for choosing a hospice care team and why that selection really matters."
— Greg Schneider President, HVA, co-author of The Changing Face of Hospice Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care
"When I first found out that Maryclaire Torinus was writing this book, I immediately contacted her because in my 25+ years supporting hospice volunteers, I have seen a gradual decline in the quality of care volunteers are permitted to provide the dying and their families. There are a variety of reasons for this that I describe in the Foreward of this book. Maryclaire provides invaluable insights that everyone should know, along with solutions to help others make the right choice in choosing a hospice."
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The Changing Face of Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care
Contributing Author - Greg Schneider
HCF Creator & HVA President
Volunteers have a long history of supporting the development and delivery of hospice and palliative care in most countries throughout the world. As hospice and palliative care services anticipate significant increasing and changing demands, it is recognized that volunteers have a vital role to play in supporting the future delivery of services. However, as society changes so too does volunteering.
This multi-author text explores the complex phenomenon of hospice and palliative care volunteering from an international perspective and considers the influence on volunteering of different cultures and constructs. The book also explores the likely impact of changes in hospice and palliative care on volunteers and considers how and why volunteering itself is changing and the subsequent implications for managers, organizations, and policy makers.
This book does not attempt to offer solutions to the many challenges ahead, but rather poses questions that may help to reflect on new possibilities and opportunities.
Review
"The book is well laid out and written in an easy to use manner. It begins with setting the scene of volunteering and the modern context of hospice and palliative care. The book is well referenced and covers a range of topics making for a balanced and thought provoking read." -- Nursing Times
"If you run a palliative care volunteer service, or a palliative care service with a volunteer program, you need to read this book. Not only will it give you an in-depth view of where things are at, but also how things are changing in countries from around the world." --
Roger Woodruff, IAHPC Newsletter
Editors
Ros Scott, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Dundee, UK and Co-chair, EAPC Task Force on Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care. She is a researcher and voluntary sector consultant with a background in organisational development, research and the development of volunteering and of palliative care organisations.
Steven Howlett, Deputy Director at Roehampton Business School, London, UK where he teaches undergraduate and post graduate courses in management and ethics. Previously he was Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Volunteering research where he completed many studies on volunteering.
God created life so that it would be cherished, respected and treated with divine care.
Comments
http://papamore.blogspot.com/2009/04/jesus-hands-at-work.html
Again, so much thanks...
Blog for my Dad...
http://papamore.blogspot.com
My Dad recently passed, January 11, 2009...from AML Leukemia...the week after he died I just had to do something and begin to try to spread Hospice, Palliative Care Awareness a bit on my own, I really didn't even know much at all about all the incredible organizations like yours yet then...just that I could not and still can not believe these heaven sent resources are sometimes not even shared at all by physicians...
I immediately discovered how tragically common our own situation is, so many have been so hurt by those choosing not share these vital resources. And by sharing, honestly, it must be done right from the start of a potential terminal disease, always in written form including valuable resources...to just bring up a word "hospice" at that "final meeting" in which a physician relays to a patient and their family that it's most likely the end...that's not sharing. This traumatizing of a situation for those experiencing it...well, of course no one should expect them to remember something someone mentioned once, hinted at, etc.
Where is the love?
Well, it's here...with all of me...thank you for what you've done and do...there could truly be no greater gift for others...to myself, with no question or doubt, you are all angels...xoxoxo
This is precisely why I started the Hospice Educators Affirming Life (HEAL) Project in 1999. I was volunteering in hospice and saw so many patients being referred to hospice care very late in their dying process. I also found so many people did not know what hospice or palliative care was. So the HEAL Project set out to create a greater awareness of these topics through its Community Outreach Program in Education (COPE). Our resources are free and they inform people about end-of-life care related topics. Our goal was to help the general public become aware of hospice and palliative care well before they needed it so they can make compassionate decisions about LIFE when the need arises. And it will arise at some time in everyone's life.
Since that time the HEAL Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, has sponsored the Hospice Volunteer Association (HVA), this Hospice Community Forum, Hannah's Friends and it will soon be launching the Hospice Volunteer Training Institute. These all have an education focus.
Keep up the good work!!
Greg