Category: In The News

Tips & Tricks for Registration Day 2018!

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Gearing Up for Women Swimmin’ 2018

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On the morning of Saturday, August 11, 2018 Cayuga Lake will be bustling with activity for the 15th Annual Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare.  Women Swimmin’ is a community swim—not a race—that raises money to support of the work Hospicare & Palliative Care Services. More than 300 women will swim 1.2 miles across Cayuga Lake that day escorted by nearly 200 boaters and supported onshore by 100 volunteers. Dozens of other women will be swimmin’ laps in pools in Tompkins and Cortland counties, across the country and even around the world in the months leading up to August 11.

Photo by Frank Leahy

Women Swimmin’ is Hospicare’s largest fundraising and community outreach event of the year.  Many of the services we provide to our community are possible because of the generous support we receive though Women Swimmin’. Obviously, all of us at Hospicare think it’s a wonderful event, but you don’t need to take our word for it!  The following is what some past participants have said about Women Swimmin’.

From women who swam across Cayuga Lake:

  • “My favorite part of Women Swimmin’ is the sense of community, joy and love on the day of the event, meeting new people, and knowing that I’m helping a family receive the end of life support the need.”
  • “It was one of the most beautiful and powerful days of my life and I can’t wait to do it again and again. The greeting I received coming out of the water from one of the volunteers moved me to tears.”
  • “I believe in the purpose, in Hospicare. The swim is a wonderful way to raise money and give back. Swimming across the lake I swim with all I have lost. Shadow swimmers beside me crossing the lake on a beautiful morning.”

From women who swam Laps:

  • “It just feels good to do something that is good for the community as well as for your own health.”
  • “I loved being able to swim Laps because I couldn’t make it back home to Ithaca for the swim! It was fun to stay involved despite being farther away.”

From some of our boaters:

  • “Rain or shine, wind or calm, it’s a great day. A chance to be on the water, do good, honor those that are gone, celebrate with those that are here, and help promote an extremely important and worthy cause.”
  • “It is a fantastic way to support friends, families and Hospicare. In a world that is full of negatives, this is a celebration of Life.”
  • “Hospicare was my family’s blessing a few years ago. I was glad to give back to them!”

If you’d like to join us for Women Swimmin’, as a swimmer, boater or volunteer, here’s what you need to know to participate in this year’s event:

  • Lake Swimmer registration will open May 7 at 6:00 AM. In past years swimmer registration filled in 2 to 3 hours, so if you’d like to swim the lake this year, we suggest you plan on setting your alarm for 6:00 AM on registration day. This year’s event is eagerly anticipated by women in our community–and beyond. Some will even come from other states and other countries to participate!
  • Boater registration opens April 15 and will be ongoing until August 5.
  • Women Swimmin’ Laps–where swimmers swim at their own pace in a swimming pool of their choice– opened for registration March 15 and will be ongoing until August 10.
  • Volunteer –registration opens May 15. We rely on the help of over 100 volunteers to make Women Swimmin’ possible!

For regular updates on the 2018 event, “like” Women Swimmin’ on Facebook.

For more information, visit www.womenswimmin.org

Recognizing Community Support of Hospicare

Posted on by Hospicare

At its heart, Hospicare & Palliative Care Services is a community organization, supported by and providing service to our friends and neighbors throughout Cortland and Tompkins Counties. We could not fulfill our mission of supporting those dealing with serious illness or grieving a loss, without the aid and involvement of our community. The annual Hospicare Recognition Luncheon allows us to come together with our friends and neighbors to show our appreciation for their contributions.

This year’s Luncheon, sponsored by Rasa Spa, was held October 5 at The Space @ GreenStar in Ithaca.

Amy Dickinson was our keynote speaker. A native of Freeville, a nationally known author and syndicated columnist of “Ask Amy,” Dickinson delivered a wonderful speech full of insightful commentary on life and meaning at the end of life.

We also presented two honors:

Candy Cima, founder of Small Comforts Foundation

The Small Comforts Foundation, Ltd. received the Dr. R. Roy Coats Compassionate Care Award. This award is given to a caregiver or group of caregivers/agency, for consistently providing exceptional, compassionate care to Hospicare patients, allowing them to live their lives as fully as possible. Small Comforts is a local non-profit foundation “dedicated to funding and administering programs to raise the morale and or quality of life for people of all ages living with chronic illness.” Our Hospicare patients have been beneficiaries of Small Comforts compassion and generosity many times over the past 13 years. Some of the items they have funded include air conditioners for patients who didn’t have AC in their homes; a juicer so a patient could have fresh, nourishing juice; and warming gloves for a patient’s arthritic hands.

Chuck Guttman

Charles Guttman received the Hospicare Volunteer Honor in appreciation of his 30 years of service to Hospicare. The Volunteer Honor is given to an individual volunteer or board or committee member who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to Hospicare and its mission. Chuck has volunteered through the years as a member of the Hospicare board of directors and the Foundation Board, and as an an advisor to the executive director on legal issues. He has also co-chaired the Hospicare Ethics Committee.

 

Thank you to our event sponsor
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Women Swimmin’ 2017 a Success!

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On Saturday, August 12, 2017, 284 women gathered to swim across Cayuga Lake (a distance of 1.2 miles). They were escorted by 150 boaters in kayaks, canoes, stand-up paddleboards and powerboats. And they were supported on shore by 130 volunteers who helped out at Cass Park, the Ithaca Yacht Club, the swim entry on the east shore, and in the days and weeks before the swim. Joining these swimmin’ women in spirit, if not in person, were 38 women who swam laps in pools throughout our community and around the world!

The women who decide to participate in Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare do so for many reasons. Some are swimming in memory or honor of a loved one who received hospice services. Some are swimming because they understand the importance of hospice services and want to make sure Hospicare will be here to support their family someday. Others swim for the physical challenge or the camaraderie of this community swim. One reason they all swim was proudly declared on our t-shirts, buttons and posters: “I swim to celebrate life.”

Some of the Hospicare Angelfish – our staff who swam for Women Swimmin’ 2017

At its very essence, hospice is a philosophy of care that celebrates life. Hospicare’s mission is to support our patients so they can live their lives as fully as possible, for however much time is left. Our team of skilled professionals and trained volunteers work together to provide physical, emotional and spiritual comfort to our friends and neighbors who are dealing with terminal illness. All of us here today, plus thousands of donors around the world, have come together to make sure that care continues.  To make sure everyone in our community can receive the hospice and palliative care they need to live their lives fully, regardless of whether they have insurance or means to pay.

Celebrating life and living life fully means different things to each of us. Obviously, it can mean swimmin’ or boatin’ across Cayuga Lake, or back and forth in a pool!

For some of the people we support, living life fully might mean:

  • a portable oxygen tank so he can go out to dinner with friends or watch a grandchild’s ball game.
  • a wheelchair and a raised garden bed so she can get outside and plant flowers
  • a volunteer to help her sort through and organize family photos
  • a social worker–and others–trying to make sure a beloved pet finds the right next home
  • a grief support group with others who are also grieving the death of someone they love

Most of all, it means there is an entire Hospicare team to make the burden of caregiving and dying just a bit easier.

All of us at Hospicare are immensely grateful for these swimmers and boaters who have given of their time and put forth great energy to fundraise for Hospicare. We also appreciate the volunteers and boaters, the friends and families who have supported our swimmers, and also to the corporate sponsors and underwriters who covered the expenses associated with the event. We truly could not support our community in all the ways we do without your amazing support.

Thank you!

No One Swims Alone

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No one swims alone. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve said or typed that phrase in the seven years I’ve worked at Hospicare and been involved with Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare. It’s an important part of our Women Swimmin’ event—that no swimmer should be alone as she crosses Cayuga Lake. She should always be with an escort boat and ideally with other swimmers. Many swimmers and boaters say their favorite part of Women Swimmin’ is the community of the event and seeing so many other swimmers and boaters around them in the lake. It can be intimidating to be in the middle of a big, deep lake, but our swimmers are not alone out there.

The women who are swimming laps as part of Women Swimmin’ Laps for Hospicare are also not swimmin’ alone. They’re in pools with a certified lifeguard watching to make sure they’re safe. Some laps swimmers are part of a Women Swimmin’ team, who are fundraising together. Even if each swimmer is swimming her laps solo, she joins in the sisterhood of Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare. She is swimmin’–just as 1400 other women have swum over the years—to raise funds that support quality, end-of-life care for our community. While she swims her laps, she carries with her the memory of friends and family who have been served by Hospicare.

I’ve come to learn, and our Women Swimmin’ participants know or have learned, that “no one swims alone” is not just a Women Swimmin’ protocol but also a mantra for hospice care. Our staff and volunteers work together, as a team, to care for and support our patients and their families. Hospice is unique in that the focus of care is not only the patient’s physical needs, but also their spiritual and emotional needs, and those of their loved ones.

Our interdisciplinary team of staff and volunteers work together to anticipate and meet the various needs of our patients and their families. Some of those needs are medical (medications, medical equipment, personal care); other needs are logistical, emotional or spiritual. Whatever the need, there is someone on the Hospicare team who will make sure that need is met.

The journey of illness, death and grief is a difficult one. Your support of Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare means that our patients and their loved ones won’t have to make the journey alone. Hospicare will be there, with skilled staff and trained volunteers to provide the support, guidance and care that’s needed.

Because no one swims alone.

Melissa Travis Dunham was previously our manager of community relations at Hospicare. She was the event coordinator and helped organize Women Swimmin’ for four years.

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Illuminations: a Time of Remembrance and Community

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Each year, on an evening in early June, the gardens of the Nina K. Miller Hospicare Center on Ithaca’s South Hill glow with light. Visitors stroll our garden paths, which are lined with 300 luminarias, many dedicated to someone who has died. At the end of the evening a lighted canoe glides across our pond while trumpeters play “Taps,” and all who are in attendance pause to remember someone they love. This is Hospicare’s spring community memorial event: Illuminations.

This year’s Illuminations event will be held on Thursday, June 8. A reception and luminaria lighting begin at 7:30 p.m. A special program of remembrance starts at 8:00 p.m. Illuminations is held rain or shine. In case of inclement weather, the program moves indoors to the Hospicare Great Room. The event is open to the public. There is no cost to attend, although luminarias can be personalized for a suggested donation of $25. (Donations are greatly appreciated, but not required.)

If you are grieving the loss of someone you love, whether the death was recent or many years ago, and regardless of whether your loved one died on hospice services, we invite you to join us. Come experience the peace and beauty of the Hospicare gardens. Light a luminaria in memory or in honor of a loved one. Most importantly, share in the sense of community with others who are also grieving a loss.

If you would like to join us or make a contribution to have a luminaria lit in memory of someone you love, please RSVP online.

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Register for Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare 2017

Posted on by Hospicare

At dawn on Saturday, August 12, 2017 more than 300 women will swim 1.2 miles across Cayuga Lake for Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare. Women Swimmin’ is a community swim—not a race—that raises money in support of Hospicare & Palliative Care Services.  Nearly 200 boaters will escort these swimmin’ women along the way and about 150 volunteer support them on shore.

Registration for this community swim opens Monday, May 1 at 6:00 a.m.

Here’s what you need to know to participate in this year’s Women Swimmin’ event:

  • Lake Swimmer registration will open May 1 at 6:00 AM. Last year’s swimmer registration filled in less than 2 hours, so if you’d like to swim the lake this year, we suggest you plan on setting your alarm for 6:00 AM on registration day. This year’s event is eagerly anticipated by women in our community–and beyond. Some will even come from other states and other countries to participate!
  • Boater registration opened April 15 and will be ongoing until August 5.
  • Women Swimmin’ Laps–where swimmers swim at their own pace in a swimming pool of their choice– opened for registration March 1 and will be ongoing until August 11.
  • Volunteer –registration opens May 15. We rely on the help of over 100 volunteers to make Women Swimmin’ possible!

For regular updates on the 2017 event, “like” Women Swimmin’ on Facebook.

For more information, visit www.womenswimmin.org

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Advance Directives Communicate Your Wishes at the End of Life

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by Suzanne Carreiro, LMSW, Hospicare Social Worker

One of my jobs as a hospice social worker is to help our patients and their families think about and complete advance directives. Advance directives provide a road map to future healthcare and are important documents everyone should have. They can include a healthcare proxy (someone you designate to make decisions about your healthcare if you are incapacitated); a living will (guidelines about the type of care you want or do not want); and a Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) form (a document signed by your doctor outlining the type of care you want and who can make decisions for you).

Talking about advance directives and long-term healthcare wishes can be difficult, especially if the first discussion is at a time when a loved one is seriously ill or dying. I encourage you to talk regularly with your loved ones about the type of care you’d want so they aren’t left struggling to guess your wishes. The other important step is completing the advance directive forms.

But how do you make the important decisions necessary to fill out these forms? The following are some suggestions you may find helpful as you think about your own advance directives.

  • Figure out what’s most important to you. What do you value about your life, your health and how you live? How much medical care are you generally comfortable with? Would you want everything possible medically to be done for you? Would that change if you were diagnosed with a terminal disease? Knowing how you think about healthcare and life is the first step in being able to articulate your wishes for your own health.
  • Decide who you want to speak for you. If you’re unable to speak for yourself, who do you trust to make healthcare decisions for you? For some people, this is their spouse or adult child. I know one woman who chose a close friend to be her healthcare proxy because she didn’t believe her family members would abide by the type of care she would want. I’ve had patients who chose a sibling or adult child because they didn’t want to burden their spouse with making tough decisions at what would be a very emotionally difficult time.
  • A healthcare proxy is more important than a living will. For most adults, having someone you trust as your healthcare proxy matters more than having a detailed living will. The living will forms might encourage you to try to imagine every possible medical scenario, but things rarely happen the way they were imagined. It’s more important to speak to your designated healthcare proxy (and other family members and close friends) about your general philosophy of care.
  • Talk to your primary care physician about a MOLST form. (In some states this form is called POLST or physician’s orders). Most of us don’t need a MOLST form yet, but for people who are getting older or who have been diagnosed with a serious illness, the MOLST form replaces the living will. Since MOLST forms are signed by your doctor, they are actual medical orders.
  • Review and revisit your advance directives periodically. As your health or life circumstances change, you should review, and perhaps revise, your advance directives. At a minimum, we recommend reviewing your advance directives when you have a birthday and your new age ends in 5 or 0; when you’re diagnosed with a serious or chronic illness; if you get divorced or married; or when someone close to you dies. To revise your living will or healthcare proxy, complete new forms and have them witnessed, write “revoke” on your old forms or destroy them, and give updated copies of the forms to your healthcare proxy, your physician, your local hospital and anyone else who has a copy of the previous forms. If you have a MOLST form, your doctor is required to review it with you periodically, especially if you move, have a change in health status or change your mind about care. You need to hold onto the originals of the forms and keep them somewhere they can be easily located if needed.
  • There are no right or wrong answers. Go back to the first item in this list. Who are you as an individual and what do you value? Each of us have our own wants and needs. Your healthcare wishes don’t need to match anyone else’s wants and needs, they just need to be right for you at this time.

Advance directives are something every adult should complete and discuss with their loved ones. You don’t need a social worker or medical professional to complete these forms; you can do it on your own. In most situations, in New York State, to complete the living will and health care proxy forms you only need two people to sign as witnesses.

Visit Hospicare’s Advance Care Planning web page to learn more.

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Join Us for Spring Volunteer Training

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Would you like to volunteer with Hospicare? We depend on over 100 volunteer community members to help our agency carry out our work. Our trained volunteers visit patients in their homes or assisted care facilities, offering practical help and companionship. They also assist the agency in other ways, depending on their interests and backgrounds.

What do volunteers get out of volunteering for our agency? Volunteer Kat Patton says her work with Hospicare gives her a chance to learn and grow as she gets to know the patients she helps. “As a volunteer you meet remarkable people who happen to be at the end of their lives,” she says. “There’s a lot of joy and wonderful connections to be made. I meet people who have done amazing things. I didn’t know them back then, but I can still hear about it now and see the twinkle in their eyes when they talk about their experiences.”

Spring volunteer training will be held for three consecutive weeks: March 14, 16, 22, 23, 29 & 30, 5:30 PM-9:00 PM. The trainings will take place at the Nina K. Miller Hospicare Center, 172 East King Road, Ithaca. Attendance at all sessions is required.

Before registering for training, prospective volunteers must submit an application form, available on line and meet with Wendy Yettru, manager of volunteer services for an informal interview.

For further information, check out the volunteers section on our website or email Wendy or call 607-272-0212.

How Hospice Helps: One Patient’s Story

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by Pauline Cameron, RN, CHPN

Pauline
Pauline Cameron, RN, CHPN

I worked with a patient who was in his late 30’s and had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of colon cancer. At the time of his referral to hospice, we had been told that his pain was not well-controlled. On my arrival at his home, the patient was lying on the sofa. I explained the 0-10 scale for rating pain and asked him to give me a number; through gritted teeth, he said, “Nine.”  And it was clear what our first priority had to be…

We quickly got his pain down to “6,” at which point he was able to engage in conversation and looked much more relaxed. Over the next several days we visited him twice a day and worked with his MD to adjust the doses of four different drugs, as he actually had multiple kinds of pain – a narcotic, a neuropathic med (for nerve pain), a steroid, and an NSAID (e.g. ibuprofen) for bone pain.

One day I walked in and, as usual, found him lying on the sofa.  I said, “OK, you know the drill – what’s the number today?” He gave me a big smile and, making a circle with his thumb and index finger, said “Zero.”

Yes, that patient died, and that was sad. But before he died he got up from that sofa and took his children to visit Marineland and took them fishing and went to visit his parents once more. He really lived until he died. Excellent pain management gave him back what was left of his life.

Pauline Cameron, RN, CHPN was a Hospicare staff member for many years until her retirement in 2014.

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