Month: January 2023

EOLPodcast

Ep. 388 A Song for You: Personalized Songs for Hospice Patients with Emily Cavanagh

kwyattmd

Learn about an initiative to provide hospice patients with songs written specifically for them about their lives and stories.

My guest Emily Cavanagh is a singer/songwriter based in New York City who performs in places like New York, Chicago and Dublin. She has made a career for herself as a singer at the intersection of music and service as she brings music to marginalized communities. She is the founder of the music initiative A Song for You, which features local, touring, and Grammy Award-winning songwriters who compose and perform original personalized songs for hospice patients and their families. She will discuss the inspiration behind A Song for You and how this work has benefitted both the recipients and the creators of these special songs. Learn more at her websites:

www.emilycavanaghmusic.com

www.hereisasongforyou.org

Watch on YouTube

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This episode includes:

  • How Emily got started in social work, activism and music
  • What inspired her to create A Song for You
  • The first song Emily wrote for a patient
  • How she writes songs for total strangers
  • How A Song for You has grown over time
  • The process for applying to have a song written for someone
  • How patients, families and songwriters have benefitted from sharing this special music
  • How to support A Song for You and its mission

Links mentioned in this episode:

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu, especially my newest patrons Lucy Karl and Amrita Dhanji, and also to Karen Friedmann for buying me a coffee! Your contributions make all the difference.

EOLPodcast

Ep. 387 How to Save Hospice with Ira Byock MD

kwyattmd

Learn about some positive steps that are needed to heal the current hospice industry in the U.S. and how your story can make a difference.

My guest Dr. Ira Byock is a leading palliative care physician, author and public advocate for improving care through the end of life. He is the author of Dying Well, The Four Things That Matter Most, and The Best Care Possible. We discuss his recent essay pinion piece published in STAT online: “Hospice Care Needs Saving,” which is a response to the November Propublica/New Yorker article How the Visionary Hospice Movement Became a For-Profit Hustle. Learn more at his website:

www.irabyock.org

Read the STAT article

Watch on YouTube

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This episode includes:

  • Our reactions to the Propublica article
  • What the article got right about today’s hospice and why we need to take it seriously
  • What the hospice movement needs to work on to improve care for patients and rebuild trust with the public
  • Why internal “self-correction” is more important now for the hospice industry than expecting Congress to make changes
  • Why over-focus on profit is dangerous for the hospice movement
  • Why transparency, strengthened oversight, and legal accountability are important steps for saving hospice
  • How stories about current hospice care can be helpful as we move forward

Links mentioned in this episode:

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu, especially my newest patron Sara Perry! Your contributions make all the difference.

EOLPodcast

Ep. 386 Five Wishes: Advance Care Planning for Everyone with Joanne Eason

kwyattmd

Learn more about the Five Wishes document and why it can be a good choice as an advance directive.

My guest Joanne Eason is the president of Five Wishes, the nation’s only national advance care planning program. She discusses the history of the Five Wishes organization and the benefits of using the Five Wishes form as an advance directive. We review the reasons why everyone over age 18 needs and advance directive and how Five Wishes can meet that need. Learn more at the website:

www.fivewishes.org

Watch on YouTube

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This episode includes:

  • The original inspiration behind Five Wishes
  • What the Five Wishes document consists of
  • Which 46 states recognize Five Wishes as a legal document and the extra steps needed in the other 4 states
  • Why choose Five Wishes over state advance directive forms or how to use both forms together
  • The benefits of planning ahead for the end of life
  • The importance of choosing the best person as a healthcare proxy
  • Why Five Wishes asks individuals to define “what life support treatment means to me”
  • The importance of including questions about more than just wishes for medical treatment in advance care planning
  • What steps to take after completing Five Wishes
  • How the Five Wishes form acknowledges the “gray areas” of end-of-life planning

Links mentioned in this episode:

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu, especially my newest patrons Kyle Tevlin and Janice Cotter! Your contributions make all the difference.

EOLPodcast

Ep. 385 End Well: Shifting the Culture Around End of Life with Tracy Wheeler

kwyattmd

Learn how End Well brings together fresh and diverse perspectives on the end of life from art, design and other non-medical fields.

My guest Tracy Wheeler is the executive director of End Well, an organization dedicated to transforming how the world views end of life. Tracy has a background in art, education, culture and politics, which inform her commitment to shining a light on how we might make end of life a part of life. She discusses the mission and work of End Well since its founding and what lies ahead in the future, including the new End Well Podcast. Learn more at the website:

www.endwellproject.org

Watch on YouTube

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This episode includes:

  • Why the end-of-life movement needs to expand beyond the perspective of the healthcare industry
  • Why End Well is working with Hollywood to get more stories written about the end of life
  • How the Netflix series From Scratch portrayed very accurately a true story of serious illness and end of life
  • What the first season of the End Well Podcast consists of
  • About Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, the founder of End Well, and what inspired her to create this organization
  • Why end-of-life care issues cannot be fixed within the medical system that helped create those very issues
  • The End Well Conference planned for 2024 and how to sign up for the mailing list
  • Why psychedelic assisted therapy will be part of the wave of the future
  • The fear of death that exists within the medical profession
  • The impact of COVID on how healthcare approaches death and dying

Links mentioned in this episode:

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu, especially my newest patrons Michele Duncan King, Arianna Workman, and Katrina Marcuse-Sharratt! Your contributions make all the difference.

EOLPodcast

Ep. 384 People Don’t Die Like They Do in the Movies with Barbara Karnes RN

kwyattmd

Learn how to counteract the misinformation about death in modern media and teach people the truth about the natural dying process.

In this episode I welcome back my recurring guest Barbara Karnes who is a hospice nurse, international speaker, and author of the books Gone From My Sight: The Dying Experience and By Your Side: A Guide for Caring for the Dying at Home. We discuss her slogan “People don’t die like they do in the movies” and how popular media, including television, film and books, provide misleading and inaccurate portrayals of the dying process. Learn how to get a T-shirt with the slogan on her website:

www.bkbooks.com

Watch on YouTube

Listen here:

This episode includes:

  • How movies and television programs misinform people about death and dying
  • The consequences of inaccurate portrayals of the end of life in popular media
  • What the natural dying process actually looks like
  • The “work” of dying and how to support a person in the process
  • Why we can’t expect a dying loved one to do or say something to support us
  • How a person’s breathing changes before death
  • Preparation for the dying process helps loved one be more present at the bedside
  • How CPR is depicted in medical TV shows as a miracle procedure that works most of the time
  • The actual facts about CPR
  • Confusion in advance care planning due to misinformation
  • Choosing the right healthcare proxy

Links mentioned in this episode:

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu, especially my newest patron Sharon Patterson! Your contributions make all the difference.