Literature Review

Hospice of Southern West Virginia is offering free Hospice Aide training for qualified applicants sABC-4 WOAY, Beckley, WV; by Brandy Lawrence; 8/26/26 Hospice of Southern West Virginia is offering Hospice Aide training at no cost to applicants interested in starting a career caring for hospice patients in their homes and at Bowers Hospice House. Applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent, reliable transportation, and complete a WV Cares background check and drug screening. Applications are open now, and training begins on the first day of employment once all pre-employment requirements are completed. Editor's Note: Bravo to Hospice of Southern West Virginia for this innovative, supportive edcuation initiative to address staffing needs for hospice aides. To adapt this for your hospice, examine the CMS Hospice Conditions of Participation: § 418.76 Hospice aide and homemaker services.

Area bereavement coordinator heads group supporting women chaplains Cranberry Eagle; by Marcia Jones-Washington; 8/24/26 It already takes a certain kind of person to perform the work of a chaplain, according to longtime police chaplain Millie Johnson, who said being a woman in the field lends its own challenges to the duties. ... Marcia Jones-Washington, a bereavement coordinator with Good Samaritan Hospice, organized an online networking ministry specifically for women chaplains which meets monthly to discuss topics relating to their work. Johnson has been a regular attendee since its founding in 2022. Jones-Washington said the group allows women to share their experiences in chaplaincy to encourage and support other women with the same calling. ...  After running the online support group for a few months, Jones-Washington took her planning to the real world and organized a conference for women chaplains that is now entering its fourth year.

Family caregivers' understanding, expectations, and emotional responses during transition to a palliative care unit: a qualitative study Empirical Research Qualitative; by Filipa Vieira-Matos and Paulo Reis-\Pina; 8/2/26 Aim: To explore how family caregivers interpret palliative care and respond to admission to a palliative care unit as a critical transition in care. ... Results: Admission was experienced as a critical transition. Three interrelated themes were identified: understanding of palliative care, expectations regarding care, and emotional responses. Participants described partial familiarity with palliative care but frequently associated referral with terminal illness. Expectations focused on comfort and clear communication. Emotional responses included fear, uncertainty, and ambivalence, particularly when referral occurred abruptly. ... Impact: Admission was experienced as a transition involving meaning-making, expectation formation, and emotional adjustment. Findings may inform nursing practice in inpatient palliative care by supporting caregiver-centered transition support.

Pittsburgh Caregivers get federal lifeline as dementia cases swell across Allegheny County hoodline; by Ryan Miller; 8/21/26 Caregivers looking after loved ones with dementia in Pittsburgh now have a new federal tool to lean on, and it is already showing up at a day center in Squirrel Hill. The Anathan Club, run by the Jewish Association on Aging, has begun connecting families to the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, a Medicare program that can cover up to $2,500 a year in respite care for qualifying beneficiaries. The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, known as GUIDE, was developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and launched nationwide on July 1, 2024, as an eight-year voluntary pilot running through June 30, 2032, according to CMS. Nearly 390 provider organizations across the country are participating. 

[Israel] Existential suffering at the end of life in long-term care: A critical essay on recognition, dignity, and witnessPalliative Care & Social Practice; by Anat Romem, Rachel Bardach; 7/26Existential suffering is widely acknowledged in palliative care, but it remains inconsistently recognized and unevenly addressed in long-term care. This critical essay argues that the gap is not caused by clinician indifference, but by a persistent mismatch between whole-person ideals and care systems organized around measurable symptoms, risk management, task completion, and professional uncertainty. [This] ... essay identifies three interrelated shortcomings: the reduction of suffering to medically actionable symptoms; the depersonalizing effects of institutional routines on frail older adults; and the absence of shared existential literacy across interdisciplinary teams. The essay also cautions against romanticizing suffering or treating meaning-making as a clinical expectation. It proposes a practical framework of recognition, dignity, and witness: recognizing biography and identity as clinically relevant; protecting dignity in the ordinary details of care; and enacting witness ... Long-term care cannot resolve every existential wound, but it can reduce existential neglect by treating personhood as a core quality indicator of palliative care.

Honoring my daughter's final wishes Substack; by Larry Lehmer; 8/7/26 I own one pink shirt. I wear it once a year, on Feb. 28, my daughter’s birthday. It’s mostly her idea. “Please wear more pink!” she wrote for her husband, Paul, to read at her celebration of life. “To the men — you can pull it off.” It’s been three years since Paul had to deliver Meghan’s final words, at the Des Moines Botanical Garden, the same place where they began their married life 13 years earlier. “I once read ‘Love doesn’t die, people do’,” Meghan wrote. “So when love is all that’s left of me, give me away.” Meghan died on Aug. 8, 2023. It still hurts, of course, but we continue to celebrate her life, her devotion to family and try to honor her dying wish “that we all help each other a little more.” Here’s what I wrote about her in August 2023: ...

AARP is working to root out health care ageism AARP; by Megan O'Reilly; 7/27/26 ... In collaboration with the Gerontological Society of America, AARP launched a training program last year to help future health professionals recognize and stop age-based bias. Tested at 13 universities across the country with about 500 students, the program uses health care scenarios and practical tools that remind providers to listen first and treat people as individuals, not stereotypes. ... Additionally, AARP has pushed for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to allow Medicare to cover essential training for family caregivers. And we fought for a measure to assess hospitals’ commitment to improving care for older patients. We also collaborated with the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative to train ER personnel to recognize dementia symptoms. ...

Home health aide pay 2026: $17.36/hr average, top states & policy threat to your paycheck Unfinished Man; by Rasha; 8/11/26 The average home health aide makes $36,120 a year, or $17.36 an hour — but pay varies widely by state, setting, and a proposed federal rule change. You search “home health aide salary” and get three different numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says one thing, Payscale says another, and the Labor Department median sits somewhere in between. Which one do you trust? ... Some aides earn barely above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Others clear $20 an hour. And right now, there’s a policy fight happening that could change everything about how this job pays.

Influencer Sydney Towle's final message before death was a powerful reminder to 'choose kindness'Big News Network; 8/7/26 The death of popular influencer Sydney Towle has left her family, friends and followers heartbroken. According to PEOPLE magazine, the 26-year-old content creator, who openly shared her battle with a rare form of cancer on social media, passed away on August 5. Before her death, she left behind a simple but powerful message about kindness and compassion.

Aging and end-of-life care planning among transgender and nonbinary individuals: A systematic reviewLGBT Health; by Ginger H Kwak, G Nic Rider, Emily A Paine, Walter O Bockting, Steven A John; 7/26The objective of this review was to identify perceptions of end-of-life (EOL) care needs among transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals. We identified five major themes during thematic analysis: fear of discrimination in long-term care facilities, fear of loss of independence, maintaining social circles with aging, obstacles to EOL logistics, and what defines successful aging. Additional subthemes included fear about loss of identity, preference for euthanasia versus loss of identity, participation in EOL planning, and advance care plan/will completion. Psychosocial aspects were the most substantial barriers to successful EOL planning.

The living dead among us - a call to recognize social death ehospice; by Aizaq P. Davis; 8/5/26... In healthcare, we often focus on physical symptoms.

Swimmers raise $18,000 for hospice North Country Now; by Cheryl Shumway; 8/3/26Dozen of swimmers ranging in age from four to senior citizens swam in the 16th annual Swim a Mile for Hospice at Norwood Beach August 1. Over $18,000 was raised for Hospice of St. Lawrence Valley. ... Ruth Fishbeck, Executive Director at Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley said, “It is so nice to have so many families here. It is outside, community-minded and supports a good cause,” she said. ... Teresa Stone, in her 15th year in the Swim a Mile for Hospice,  had a special reason to participate this year. “I am swimming in honor of my mother, Barbara Towne, of Canton, who I lost last December. I can’t imagine not having Hospice. It gave me comfort to have someone guiding me with her care,” said Stone. ... Funds raised support hospice care, grief counseling, bereavement programs and community education services.

Schoolgirl's response to being told about dad's terminal cancer BBC; by Lauren Hirst; 7/12/26  When Chris Capstick was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, his family made the decision not to use the word c-word in the house. Instead the disease was known as "daddy's little monsters" for the benefit of his two youngest children. ... "It was really, really hard," said the 30-year-old, who works as an arts coordinator for young people but has taken time away to support her husband. ... "Having a six-year-old and a two-year-old, we didn't really know how to navigate it." This is when the idea of writing a rhyming storybook with their eldest daughter Isabella, who is now aged six, was born. "We thought what a great thing to do little cartoon monsters in a way that aren't scary," said Lauren. ... Isabella wanted to write the book from her own perspective with lots of colorful illustrations on each page.