Literature Review

Dr. Martin McCormack: The healthcare leader connecting education, governance and a safer world Global Healthcare Magazine; September 2026 issue Long before he held a title [Chief Executive Officer of the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland], ... Dr. Martin McCormack sat with families in the hardest hours of their lives, [as a palliative care physician, trauma counselor with patients and families in intensive care, supervising a team of 36 medical social workers, developing bereavement services. ... He measures his own leadership less by what has been delivered in any one period than by the capability it leaves behind. ... Dr. McCormack has been asking some version of the same question that has remained consistent throughout his career: What does this person need from the system around them, and how do we build it so it holds?

Support children through grief with faith and honesty Patheos; by M.T. Mom; 9/22/26 Grief is messy for adults. Involving kids raises the stakes. How do we support children through grief while we’re grieving alongside them? ...

Loved ones remembered with release of 1,000 monarch butterflies The Courier, Waterloo, IA; by Maria Kuiper; 9/15/26 A break in the clouds Sunday seemed too good to be true as 1,000 monarch butterflies were released during Cedar Valley Hospice’s Release and Remember event. Despite the rain, about 2,000 people showed up for the fundraiser event where butterflies could be bought and dedicated to loved ones that died during hospice care. ... “Butterflies represent to so many people that transformation between one life and the other because they’re literally going through that transformation,” Suzanne Benda, Cedar Valley Hospice’s chief growth officer, said. “I think it does show that, I mean, what a special moment as they come out and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is playing and we see the butterflies start to take off.”

[Hospice bereavement director] A non-anxious presence: Red Cross volunteer supports Flight 93 families and responders American Red Cross; video interview with Patti Anewalt, PhD; 9/1/26 [Dr. Patti Anewalt is the retired director of Hospice and Community Care's Pathways Center for Grief and Loss, Mount Joy / Lancaster, Pensylvania. Of note, her hospice organization supported her volunteer time in this crucial Red Cross disaster mental health role.] When Patti Anewalt first learned about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, she immediately sensed her phone might ring. At the time, Patti was an American Red Cross volunteer in Central Pennsylvania and an experienced grief counselor [whose PhD was in trauma]. As coworkers gathered around televisions to watch events unfold, she told her boss she thought she would be called to respond. She was right. The next day, Patti was deployed to Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville ... For two weeks, she worked alongside fellow Red Cross volunteers, supporting victims' families, disaster workers and responders as they navigated one of the most tragic moments in American history. ... As family members arrived in Pennsylvania, many visited the crash site for the first time. Some were unsure whether they even wanted to go. ... "Whenever we're teaching in hospice, we say we're a non-anxious presence at a very difficult time in people's lives," she said. "The role I had there was no different than my day role at hospice because it's just being a non-anxious presence to people who are in the worst time in their lives and being present for them." ...Editor's Note: Many readers know Patti--both as faithful friend and for her prolific leadership teaching about trauma, grief, and hospice organization's appropriate (and not appropriate) responses to community tragedies, especially in the years following 9/11. Patti led NHPCO's professional Bereavement Group to be the most active, growing group during her 6-year volunteer tenure. Patti was a regular reader of our newsletter until her well-deserved, recent retirement.

How Latine families navigate pediatric loss amid broken systems: A qualitative study with caregivers and providers using Liberation PsychologyAdvances in Nursing Science; by Patricia Buzelli, Tolu O Oyesanya, Angelli Aguilar, Rosa M Gonzalez-Guarda; 8/26This study explored the challenges and strengths shaping Latine families' experiences of pediatric loss in the United States context. Eighteen semistructured interviews with healthcare providers (n = 7) and bereaved Latine caregivers (n = 11) were carried out using an integrated qualitative descriptive and Liberation Psychology approach. Four themes emerged that are heavily shaped by individual and contextual factors: (1) Unsupportive and hegemonic systems, (2) caregiver and provider discordance regarding end-of-life care, (3) caregiver identity transcendence in the "natural distress of grief," and (4) supportive networks and their limitations. Results highlight sociocultural realities that inform needed structural, policy, and practice changes.

9/11 Memorial Map: Prepare for next Friday, 9/11's 25th anniversary 9.11 Legacy Foundation; Editor's Note by Joy Berger; retrieved from the internet 9/1/26 Explore a growing map of memorials nationwide that honor the lives lost and the heroes who responded to the September 11 attacks. Each marker reflects a community’s dedication to remembrance, resilience, and unity.Editor's Note: Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001? How did you learn? Whom did you contact? What do you remember feeling? Fearing? What unfolded in your life, your family, your community because of the tragedies of 9/11? We--in hospice--know the longterm impact of both "normal" loss, and of tragic losses that live on in us until we die. I implore you to create ways to allow your employees and volunteers to honor this day in ways that can be meaningful to them, while respecting the tasks that need to be done on this standard workday. Perhaps, a message from your CEO, from a chaplain, a bereavement counselor, an employee who was directly affected by 9/11, or someone else. Perhaps--sent ahead of time, a link to a live-stream memorial service. Perhaps, a real-time text that marks a moment of silence on 9/11. Use your imagination and skills for healing, for compassionate care. Do you have a story to share? Please send the URL link to me.

Sisters have doubts about cremated remains: ‘Where is my mama?’ ChicagoPublicMedia, Chicago, IL; by Cindy Hernandez; 8/28/26 Franquella and Marshawna Campbell hired Planet Green Cremations after their mother died earlier this year, only to later discover that the business was owned by Clark and Johanna Morgan, who are under investigation for improperly storing human remains. ... When sisters Franquella and Marshawna Campbell learned that the man who had picked up their mother’s body from hospice had been accused of mishandling human remains, they turned to the urn sitting on the table in their mother’s living room. They opened it and began to question everything. “Where is my mama?” Franquella Campbell, 40, asked over and over. 

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.

If you lost a spouse/domestic partner in recent weeks read this today AfterTalk; by Larry Lynn; 8/17/26 I remember when I lost my first wife 30+ years ago, and recall how unprepared I was to deal with financial issues in the moment. I made mistakes that cost me later, so let me keep this simple. ... 

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: ...

JRMC Hospice Memorial Service NewsDakota.com, Jamestown, ND; by Steve Urness; 8/14/2026 Caregivers, families and friends gathered Aug. 11 at Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC) to remember loved ones during a hospice memorial service. Attendees came together to honor and reflect on those who have passed and concluded with the planting of a maple tree in JRMC’s Kornovich Healing Gardens. Members of JRMC Home Health and Hospice, including chaplains, social workers and nurses, spoke during the ceremony. ... Registered nurse Chelsey Duffy. “Hospice is about living every remaining moment with comfort, dignity, peace and love. It is about making sure no one walks this journey alone.” The newly planted maple tree will serve as a living tribute to those remembered during the service, representing both remembrance and renewal.