Contents:
1. The Last Preview
2. Topics for December
3. Activities to Consider
4. Materials Now Available!
5. Website to be Up Soon
6. Last Acts Partner Call with Dr. Dan Tobin a Huge
Success!
7. What Do You Know?
1. THE LAST PREVIEW
In this edition of the newsletter we will be previewing the final month of, “Finding Our Way.” This newspaper series has been a significant milestone in the community coalition-based effort to improve end-of-life care that, for us, began with Bill Moyers’ “On Our Own Terms.” Coalitions across the country are working in their communities to improve the way we die in this nation, and the work is hard. Let’s face it, death is not something easy to experience or contemplate. When there is a focal point around which to rally the public’s attention –like the articles that will be appearing weekly in newspapers across the country– your coalition has an opportunity to use them to make it a little bit easier for one more person to face his or her dying and death or that of a loved one. Just as “On Our Own Terms” afforded us a national framework for these conversations and community action, so does “Finding Our Way.”
2. TOPICS FOR DECEMBER
“Finding Our Way” will conclude in December. There’s something appropriate about this timing as we all know how difficult the holidays can be for those who have lost or are losing a loved one? Hopefully the series will help heighten our awareness of and sensitivity toward the grieving.
On December 3rd, the series will focus on the difficult subject of unexpected violence and death. In an article entitled, “Healing the Secondary Victims,” Charles Corr will discuss the impact of unexpected violence and death, including suicide involving teenagers and elderly males, violence in schools, war or natural-disaster related deaths.
On December 10th, the focus shifts to living with loss. Marcia Lattanzi-Licht authors an article entitled, “Swimming With the Tide,” that addresses grief, pathways to healing and how the community can provide support and caring for the bereaved.
On December 17th, “Finding Our Way” concludes with an article discussing end-of-life care in the future. Dr. Dan Tobin pens this final article entitled, “A Vision for the Future: Navigating Within Healthcare.” This article discusses the importance of planning, preparation and control in living with dying. It will leave us with examples of continuity of care, Centers of Excellence, volunteerism, professional and institutional change and, ultimately, hope.
3. ACTIVITIES TO CONSIDER
Here are some activities to consider for December:
- The end of the year provides an opportunity to look back on those who have passed on during the course of the year. For the article on unexpected violence and death, you could approach your local paper to sponsor a “virtual” memorial wall on their website and offer readers to post photos and tributes/remembrances of their deceased loved ones.
- For the article on grief, your coalition could reach out to your funeral directors, community mental health professionals, counseling centers and social workers to discuss putting together a directory of bereavement services for your community. You could also hold informational seminars on coping with grief. How about raising the question of when grief really begins? Is it when someone dies or when you learn that someone is going to die? How do we recognize the “little” losses in our daily lives? Could taking a moment to focus on them help us be more in touch with our feelings of grief when we suffer the really big loss of a loved one?
- For the series’ final article, on the future of end-of-life care, why not work with your community to create a public display of the mosaic of interests “Finding Our Way” has represented. Make it a community visioning exercise covering the arts, the sciences, the sociology, culture, and spirituality related to death, dying and bereavement.
As always, the possibilities for outreach are endless. Touch your community through your activities and help this newspaper series extend far beyond the pages of your local paper.
4. MATERIALS NOW AVAILABLE!
Materials are now available to help assist you in your efforts. We have a package that includes two each of a flier to give to your local Newspaper Editors, a flier to assist you in Fundraising locally to support your efforts around the series and a Community Action Guide and two Community Action Fliers. In addition, we have substantial quantities of the Community Action Flier that we could make available to you in larger quantities. We will begin mailing these items out beginning next week, so if you’d like them, please send an email to steeringcommittees@bbballard.com as soon as possible! Please identify the materials you’d like to receive, how you plan to use them, and the quantity you’d like us to send you.
5. WEBSITE TO BE UP SOON
The Finding Our Way website is scheduled for launch later this month. Bookmark it now and check it out in a few weeks! www.findingourway.net. All of the community cction tools, as well as publicity tools from Diane Glynn Publicity will be available for downloading on the website.
6. LAST ACTS PARTNER CALL WITH DR. DAN TOBIN A HUGE SUCCESS!
More than 150 people participated in a Last Acts Partner call with Dr. Dan Tobin on June 29th, making this the largest Partner call ever. Dr. Tobin provided a great deal of information about the upcoming series including information about supporting materials and where and when newspapers will be able to access the series.
Highlights from the call include:
- The series will be available to newspapers in two different formats beginning August 6th. IT IS, HOWEVER, EMBARGOED UNTIL THE RELEASE DATE.
- Tanya Herbick from Burness Communications (the PR firm which handles the media for Last Acts) suggested that you might want to target not only the managing editor of your newspaper, but also specific editors such as the health or religion editors to encourage them to run the series. DON’T GIVE UP! Even if your newspaper has said no, once you have generated public support for or interest in the series, they may very well reconsider.
- If your newspaper is not running it, you are welcome to release the series through your newsletters provided that you honor the embargo date. If your newspaper is running the series, you may still reprint it in your newsletter, but NO SOONER THAN 30 DAYS AFTER YOUR PAPER HAS PUBLISHED IT.
- The articles will be available to you at www.findingourway.net August 6th. You may read them on the site, but not print them until after the embargo has been lifted.
- In addition to the other materials available, a tabletop poster will be available for use in bookstores and at events which you organize. For the poster, please email your requests to
findingourway123@aol.com
- The Community Action Guide contains six ideas for activities that you can undertake in your community.
- The series is going to be translated into Spanish and we are working with a generous volunteer to translate at least a few of the articles into Chinese.
Thanks to Nancy Reller from Barksdale Ballard & Company who introduced Dr. Tobin, Tanya Herbick from Burness Communications who provided the perspective on the media and to those who called in with questions. Finally, thanks to Dr. Tobin himself who inspired all of us to action and was in turn inspired by the questions he received. After the call, Dr. Tobin reported that he felt the enthusiasm for the series and the outreach was “palpable.” He was talking about you and the way you have wholeheartedly taken on this project! Keep up the great work and let us know how we can help by writing us at
steeringcommittees@bballard.com
7. WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
Please tell us what’s going on with you, your coalition, your activities and your newspaper. Feeding us information is a way for us to provide sustenance to the other coalition efforts. When we share the information we receive with this e-news list, it helps all of us become aware that we are not alone in our struggles and that we are part of a greater movement to improve care and caring near the end of life. Send us an email and tell us:
steeringcommittees@bballard.com. We’ll spread the word!
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