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CHAP Provider Seal Color

OCTOBER 2018

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Notes From Friends

Hospice of the Valleys serves hundreds of patients each and every year. We honor them by sharing their stores. They remind us every day of the meaning and purpose in our work and that human connection is at the heart of the hospice experience

The following are notes Hospice of the Valleys has received from the families of patients that we have been privileged to provide hospice care.

It is with a grateful heart of thanksgiving that I thank you on behalf of my mother and all our family for your loving care this past year. Your support, encouragement, and professional care made the journey a little easier and your affirmation assuring that we were doing all we could to make each day comfortable for her.

I wanted to send a special "thanks" to the nurses that cared for my Dad. Your kindness was very appreciated by myself, my brother, and most of all my mom. They made his transition easy and was knowledgeable in explaining the body's process in death. You are all angels among earth.

Amazon Smile. You shop. Amazon Gives.

If you love to shop Amazon, consider using
Amazonsmile.org
and designating Hospice of the Valleys as your charity of choice. Amazonsmile offers all that Amazon does, and Hospice of the Valleys will benefit at no cost to you!

Hospitality: Cultivating Time

By: Dr. Lynn Euzenas

Director of Spiritual Care & Bereavement Services

Dr. Lynn Euzenas - Hospice of the ValleysDear Friends:

The week of October 21-27th is Spiritual Care Week! This year's theme is "Hospitality: Cultivating Time." Hospice of the Valleys will celebrate its spiritual care providers with festivities, honors, and a luncheon on Wednesday the 24th. Spiritual care is an integral part of the hospice team. As a discipline, hospice care treats the whole person: body, mind, and spirit. Spiritual care providers (also known as chaplains) are expert in the delicate art of providing spiritual and emotional care for the hospice patient and family. Hospice spiritual care providers are highly trained: they must be an ordained minister in a recognized denomination; they must hold an appropriate master's degree; and they must have completed a special form of training called clinical pastoral education. CPE, as it is known, is a highly supervised clinical training program which shapes, observes, and teaches chaplains as they are visiting actual patients in a hospice or health care setting. It is rigorous, filled with self-reflection and critique, and shapes chaplains who are especially sensitive to the needs, desires, and appropriate care of persons in a medical or clinical setting.

These special members of the hospice team must also have more than this professional clinical training: they must have a calling to this work of caring for the terminally ill; they must have a comfortability of self which allows for humility, grace, and ease of being with people; and they must have the special gifts of both being a good listener and one able to make a person feel at ease and loved. A deep personal spiritual journey and the ability to laugh are also highly prized!

I am privileged to work with two such gifted colleagues, both of whom have additional certification as bereavement counselors from the American Academy of Grief Counselors: Bill Koster and Mike Patton. My life is enriched by their gifts each day that we work together as a team, and I see, day in and day out, the true blessing they are to all our patients and families. Please join me the week of October 21-27, in honoring them. DO something nice for a chaplain you know, this week!

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Lynn L. Euzenas, PHD, MDiv

Director of Spiritual Care

Hospice of the Valleys

Thanks for the Memories

Dr. Leslee B. Cochrane

Executive Medical Director

Dr. Leslee Cochrane - Hospice of the ValleysHas this ever happened to you... you bump into someone at the grocery store who looks very familiar and they greet you by name but you can't seem to remember their nmae and so you play along with the conversation hoping that their name iwll come back to you? I usually stumble through the awkwardness of the situation and then 5-10 minutes later, it sudenly surfaces. If you are like me, don't worry... short lapses in memory such as these are considered normal. Memory loss which disrupts dialy life such as the inability to retain new information or forgetting important dates such as your birthday or anniversay is not normal and is considered one of the early warning signs of Alzheimers diesease.

In addition to memory loss, other early warning signs of Alzheimers include:

  • Challenges in planning or solving problems such as difficulty paying regular bills.
  • Difficulty completing failiar tasks such as no longer being able to play a familiar game.
  • Confusion with time or place such as not knowing the current month or season.
  • Trouble understanding visual images such as not being able to tell time by looking at a clock.
  • New problems with speaking or writing such as being unable to name a familiar object.
  • Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace your steps to find them.
  • Decreased or poor judgment such as falling for mail or telephone scams.
  • Withdrawal from social activities such as no longer attending clubs or church meetings.
  • Changes in mood or personality such as new onset of anxiety or confusion.

Although a certain amount of memory function decline is expected as we age, if you notice one or more of the above signs I would encourage you to see your health care provider for an evaluation. The Harvard Men's Health Watch published an article by Dr. Marshall regarding the value currently available vitamin and nutritional supplements at preventing or treating memory decline. The list of supplements reviewed include B vitamins (folic acid, B6, and B12), antioxidants (vitamins C and E, coenzyme Q10), herbal supplements (hyperzine A, ginkgo biloba), and fish oil, curcumin, and coconut oil. None of these items were shown to prevent memory loss or cognitive decline. "There are a lot of things out there for which we have no data on whether they are safe or do anything to help," Dr. Marshall says. While there is no "magic" memory pill, the good news is that there are studies which show that a Mediterranean diet combined with exercise has shown promise in preventing memory loss and cognitive decline.

This year Hospice of the Valleys celebrates over 35 years of providing compassionate care during loss to the patients and families in our community. As we continue to help families through their end of life journey, we want to say thanks for your support.

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