Literature Review

Miami camp helps grieving children heal through art and play Local 10.com, Miami, FL; by Christian De La Rosa; 1/25/26 ... During Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, laughter, music and paint-filled hands filled Miami’s Shake-A-Leg sports center as children ages 4 to 18 took part in Camp Kangaroo, a free, two-day grief support camp. At first glance, it looked like a typical camp experience. But every child there shared a common bond. ... Camp Kangaroo is designed specifically for children who are grieving, blending therapeutic support with creative activities. The program is hosted by AccentCare Hospice in partnership with Seasons Hospice Foundation and is offered in locations across Florida and the country. 

The quiet note: Music, the language of compassion at life's end Psychology Today; by Sara Leila Sherman and Morton Sherman; 7/14/25 Music plays a vital role in the quieter, more tender, more difficult moments of life, especially near the end. We’ve seen how a single note, played or remembered, can become a bridge between worlds, between a person and their memories, a caregiver and a patient, a life lived and a life letting go. In those final moments of life, where silence often speaks louder than words, music and mindful action offer something medicine cannot: presence. 

IAHPC photo contest: We have our winners! International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care (IAHPC); 12/18/25 Our members submitted an incredible array of images that expressed moving moments, illustrated challenges, and showed the beauty of palliative care in their daily work. It required four rounds of judging by our five-member panel, plus a Zoom meeting at the end, to narrow the selection of 186 photos sent in and settle on the winners. [View]

'Music makes everything better': Austin doctor spins vinyl to give patients a sense of home KUT 90.5, Austin, TX; by Olivia Aldridge; 12/16/25 Lying in her bed at Dell Seton Medical Center, 64-year-old Pamela Mansfield sways her feet to the rhythm of George Jones’ “She Thinks I Still Care.” Mansfield is still recovering much of her mobility after a recent neck surgery, but she finds a way to move to the music floating from a record player that was just wheeled into her room. “Seems to be the worst part is the stiffness in my ankles and the no feeling in the hands,” she says. “But music makes everything better.” Mansfield was being visited by the ATX-VINyL program, a project dreamed up by Dr. Tyler Jorgensen to bring music to the bedside of patients dealing with difficult diagnoses and treatments. He collaborates with a team of volunteers who wheel the player on a cart to patients’ rooms, along with a selection of records in their favorite genres.

The memory bear legacy, sewn with love: One woman’s heartfelt stitches continue to warm the Treasure Coast community Hometown News, Port St. Lucie, FL; by MaryAnn Ketcham; 11/30/25 Director of Volunteer Services for Treasure Coast Hospice Lisa Gunggoll recently joined Board Chairwoman and former staff member Eileen Emery at the Gardens of Port St. Lucie Senior Living Facility. There, they spent time with resident Gerry Cornell in what became a truly memorable occasion. ... Over the years, Cornell handcrafted more than 100 Memory Bears for Treasure Coast Hospice patients and families. On the day of the visit at the Port St. Lucie Gardens, Cornell proudly presented an album filled with photos of those bears, each stitched with love, care, and compassion. The album is a beautiful gift, returning a piece of her legacy that had brought comfort to so many grieving families. Editor's Note: Click here for more about Treasure Coast Hospice's Memory Bears and Pillows.

Shepherd’s Cove Hospice: Children’s Activity Garden Sand Mountain Reporter, Albertville, AL; by Mary Bailey; 11/22/25 Shepherd’s Cove Hospice in Albertville lives by the words of community, compassion and connection. On Tuesday morning they opened the doors of the community room for a free breakfast and then held a ribbon cutting for their new “Children’s Activity Garden” located at their facility. With one in nine children in Alabama experiencing a loss of a parent or sibling by age 18, Shepherd’s Cove Hospice saw a need and wanted to help. The Children’s Activity Garden is space where children and teenagers can come to deal with their emotions but also have the freedom and space to still be a child and play. 

Stitched with love: Allied’s memory bears offer comfort to grieving families in Northeast Pennsylvania WVIA News - PBS/NPR, Scranton, PA; by Lydia McFarlane; 10/27/25 Barbara Rushinski received a bear made of her partner’s pajamas after he passed in hospice care at Allied Services. She was so moved, she put her sewing skills to good use and joined the team of volunteers making the bears for grieving families in Northeast Pennsylvania. ... Allied offers its memory bears to grieving families whose loved ones died in hospice. ... Joyce Wizda started the program at Allied more than six years ago when she joined the healthcare system as a social worker. ... She estimates the volunteers make about 150 bears a year. ... Wizda encourages families to send in clothing items from their loved one’s closet to ease their grieving journey.

Letters without limits: Linda McDaniel The Johns Hopkins News-Letter; by Max Siauw and Linda McDaniel; 10/18/25 Letters Without Limits, founded by students at Johns Hopkins and Brown University, connects volunteers with palliative care and hospice patients to co-create “Legacy Letters.” These letters capture memories, values and lessons that patients wish to share, preserving stories that might otherwise be lost. By honoring these voices and preserving legacies, Letters Without Limits hopes to affirm the central role of humanism in medicine, reminding us that every patient is more than their illness and that their voices deserve to be heard. As you read these powerful Legacy Letters, we invite you to pause, reflect and recognize the beauty in every life.

New art exhibit on display at MaineHealth Waldo Hospital MaineHealth, Belfast, ME; 10/14/25 A new art exhibit is now on display at MaineHealth Waldo Hospital, featuring works by Kristin Golden, Penny Linn and Penny Markley. Their works are on display along the first-floor hallway near the hospital’s laboratory and cardiac rehabilitation department. The exhibit is part of an ongoing effort at MaineHealth Waldo Hospital to showcase a range of artists and mediums from across Maine. The MaineHealth Pen Bay and Waldo Hospitals Art Committee, made of care team members from both hospitals, put out a call for artists in January, looking for artists with ties to Maine and New England to display their work in a series of 12-week exhibits at the hospitals. Editor's Note: MaineHealth Waldo Hospital’s rotating art exhibits show how creativity can enhance healing spaces for patients, families, and staff. Consider adapting this idea—partnering with local artists or schools to display works that bring comfort and reflection—to enrich your hospice units, grief counseling rooms, or offices.

[Brazil] Integrating holistic communication into psychedelic-assisted therapies in hospice and palliative care: An approach based on Peplau's theoryJournal of Holistic Nursing; by Ana Cláudia Mesquita Garcia, Felipe Teixeira, Lucas Oliveira Maia; 9/25 Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) has shown promising results in alleviating psychological and existential suffering among individuals with serious illnesses. This article explores the application of Peplau's Theory of Interpersonal Relations (PTIR) as a foundation for holistic communication in PAT, particularly in hospice and palliative care. We examine how PTIR's core concepts (person, health, environment, and nursing) along with its articulation of therapeutic roles, phases of the nurse–patient relationship, and the concept of anxiety as a signal of unmet needs, can be integrated into PAT's preparation, dosing, and integration phases. Drawing on a fictional case study involving a patient with advanced cancer, we illustrate how nurses can use PTIR to support emotional processing, foster insight, and promote personal growth during psilocybin-assisted therapy.

Students lift patients' spirits with Words of Warmth The Daily Toreador, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; by Christian Jeter; 9/19/25 As pens hit paper with words of love and encouragement, students gathered to write letters to patients currently in hospice care at the Student Activities Board’s Words of Warmth event on Sept. 19. Hosted on the first floor of the Student Union Building, the event invited students to write a letter or decorate gift bags with uplifting words as a part of the SAB’s Service Week, a period of time in which the organization holds community service-focused volunteer events. ... Phrases such as “Peace and love” and “Wishing you comfort” were some of the many suggestions SAB members recommended students write on their letters. Students could also write more in-depth text or personal anecdotes.

The quiet note: Music, the language of compassion at life's end Psychology Today; by Sara Leila Sherman and Morton Sherman; 7/14/25 Music plays a vital role in the quieter, more tender, more difficult moments of life, especially near the end. We’ve seen how a single note, played or remembered, can become a bridge between worlds, between a person and their memories, a caregiver and a patient, a life lived and a life letting go. In those final moments of life, where silence often speaks louder than words, music and mindful action offer something medicine cannot: presence. 

Avoidant and approach-oriented coping strategies, meaning making, and mental health among adults bereaved by suicide and fatal overdose: A prospective path analysisBehavioral Sciences; Jamison S. Bottomley, Robert A. Neimeyer; 5/25The current study shed light on the role of avoidance- and approach-oriented coping strategies in aggravating or ameliorating the longer-term distress of the survivors of such losses, roughly half of whom showed continued clinical-level elevations of prolonged grief, posttraumatic stress, and depressive symptomatology two years following the death. The results provided cautionary evidence that avoidant coping through denial, distraction, and behavioral disengagement prospectively predicted higher levels of prolonged grief and posttraumatic stress, with the impairment of meaning making about the loss accounting for much of the variance in the former outcome. In contrast, actively approaching others for support and attempting to confront and surmount the problems posed by bereavement consistently predicted a reduction in prolonged grief, posttraumatic stress, and depression symptoms in the months that followed. The latter impacts were found to be fully mediated by the enhancement of meaning making about the loss, carrying practical implications for bereavement support and grief therapy for this vulnerable population of mourners.