Understanding the Needs of the Dying: Bringing Hope, Comfort and Love to Life's Final Chapter

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

David Kessler, MA, RN, FACHE Related seminars and products

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David Kessler is one of the world’s foremost experts on grief and loss. His experience with thousands of people on the edge of life and death has taught him the secrets to living a happy and fulfilled life, even after life’s tragedies.

He is the author of six books, including his latest bestselling book, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. He co-authored two books with Elisabeth Kubler Ross, Life Lessons and On Grief and Grieving, updating her 5 stages for grief. He also co-wrote, You Can Heal Your Heart with Louise Hay. He authored Visions Trips and Crowded Rooms: Who and What You See Before You Die. His first book, The Needs of The Dying received praise from Saint (Mother) Teresa.

David’s personal experience as a child witnessing a mass shooting while his mother was dying in a hospital helped him begin his journey. For most of his life, David has taught physicians, nurses, counselors, police, and first responders about the end of life, trauma, and grief. However, despite his vast knowledge of grief, his life was turned upside down by the sudden death of his twenty-one-year-old son.

David’s volunteer work includes being a founding member of Project Angel Food, a well-known and loved non-profit organization. He currently serves on the board of The Farrah Fawcett Foundation which provides cancer research, patient assistance, and prevention efforts. He also serves as Specialist Reserve for the Los Angeles Police as well as having served on the Red Cross’s disaster services team.

He has a new online model of grief support called Tender Hearts with over 25 groups each as well as one of the most respected Grief Certification programs. He is the founder of www.grief.com, which receives millions of visits yearly providing helpful resources to over 167 countries.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: David Kessler is the is the co-founder and President Emeritus of Project Angel Food. He is a published author and receives royalties. David Kessler receives a speaking honorarium and recording and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: David Kessler is a board member for the Farrah Fawcett Foundation. He is a team member of the Health Care Executives of Southern California, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Red Cross.

Objectives

1. Determine common needs of the dying and ways to meet across many health care settings
2. Employ ways to discuss end of life issues while allowing miracles and hope
3. Distinguish the differences and commonalities of palliative and hospice care models
4. Evaluate anticipatory grief and how it shapes the end of life experience for patients and families
5. Apply tools and techniques to manage our own reactions to loss in the workplace
6. Manage and resolve conflict regarding advance directives and code status
7. Utilize tools to help children cope with a love one dying
8. Assess common characteristics of deathbed visions and normalize them for families
9. Prepare techniques for running a successful family conference
10. Justify how fears about pain addiction can play a role in family dynamics at the end of life
11. Defend the role of spirituality and its role in the last years of life

Outline

Signs of Impending Death

• Preparing family for physical changes
• Interventions for coping with emotional changes in the family
• Using near death awareness as a predictor in clinical settings

Palliative Care Model

• Academic settings vs community
• Physician led vs non physician led
• Roles of physician, nurse, social worker, case manager, discharge planner, clergy
• What’s best - hospital, home health, hospice, skilled nursing facility
• Joint commission certification

Hospice

• Removing barriers
• How hospice can increase length of stay while decreasing hospital time
• Bereavement services to enhance community partnerships

Death Related Sensory Experiences (Death Bed Visions)

• Effective and ineffective models for family coping and integration
• Religion in patients’ deathbed visions
• Using the law to normalize the dying experience
• Clinical/palliative care studies, research of near death awareness

Advance Directives

• Physician order for life-sustaining treatment
• Make advance directives useful and medically effective
• D.N.R. (do not resuscitate) vs. A.N.D. (allow natural death)
• Code status and impact on the grieving process

Anticipatory Grief

• Treatment strategies for hospice, palliative care and mental health care professionals
• Tools for normalizing

Helping the Dying Patient’s Children

• How the media shapes a child’s view of death
• Tools for preparing a child for loss
• Interventions for coping with funerals
• Why children are often the forgotten grievers and how to help

The Ethics Committee and End of Life

• How and when to use your ethics committee
• How and why members of the end of life team can participate
• Techniques for helping families get the most out of the ethics meetings
• Avoid the common pitfalls of ethics committees at the end of life

Hope and Miracles

• How to help families integrate desire for miracles at the end of life
• Techniques for honoring hope without fostering denial

Cultural Differences

• Affecting care of the dying
• Tools for successfully bridging the gap with healthcare providers and families

The Question of Assisted Suicide

• Understanding the current debate
• The realities of withdrawing care vs. assisted suicide
• Learn techniques for addressing patient’s requests for assisted suicide within the facilities and health care provider’s beliefs system

Target Audience