Literature Review

Grief care efforts should include settings outside of hospice, provider group say McKnights Senior Living; by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 7/3/24 If standards are developed for high-quality bereavement and grief care, they must apply to settings outside of traditional hospice care, such as affordable senior housing, where there is a “critical lack” of mental health services. That’s according to LeadingAge, which submitted comments last week to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on a draft report from a research project that will inform an independent panel that will develop standards for high-quality bereavement and grief care. Katy Barnett, LeadingAge director of home care and hospice operations and policy, highlighted the need for cross-continuum grief and bereavement assessments, interventions and resources, including in settings outside of traditional hospice care, such as affordable senior housing.

How funerals and death became the new hot things New York Post; by Alix Strauss; 6/16/24 ... Funeral homes, similar to cemeteries ... are becoming the new community centers, and people are attending events not for sad occasions, but because they have become death curious, death fascinated, and death comfortable as we all move closer to that final chapter. “The stigma around funeral homes is dissipating. The vibe of our funeral home is changing. People come to these events wanting to be here, as opposed to having to be here,” said William Villanova, president of Frank E. Campbell – The Funeral Chapel. “There’s a void we are filling in our community. We put on large-scale, high-quality, catered events with talented people at an extraordinary space.”

The cost of dying is going up, leaving some Florida families scrambling Tampa Bay Times; by Lauren Peace; 5/1/24 Christina Nall sat in the hospital parking lot gasping for air. Four hours earlier, her father, Bill Burke, had been alive. He’d eaten Golden Grahams for breakfast and wrapped his grandkids in tight hugs before school. He was putting on his shoes to leave the house when Nall, 33, found him slouched over on the couch. Doctors said it was a blood clot. He was 56 years old. Now, outside the Zephyrhills hospital, a fog of grief hung over Nall as the funeral director’s words cut into her. To get her dad back to his home in Missouri would cost upward of $2,000. The service and burial he wanted would cost another $6,000.

Thinking outside the box: eco concerns prompt greener funeral options Positive.News, by Alison McClintock; 4/5/24 Keeping a lid on your carbon footprint doesn’t stop with your last breath. Your choice of funeral can have a significant environmental impact. In a recent report by the US-based National Funeral Directors Association, 60.5% of those surveyed expressed their interest in greener options including resomation (water cremation) human composting and natural burials.  And while the UK’s funeral preferences are currently split 80:20 between cremations and burials, YouGov research finds that almost a third (29%) of people in the UK would choose alternative committal methods if available. 

The process of dealing with death is experiencing rebirth in a less-religious Pittsburgh Digital Daily; by Med St-Esprit, PublicSource; 3/24/24 Tanisha Bowman, of the North Side, a palliative care social worker for Butler Health System and a “death walker,” walks amongst the old graves in St. Mary’s Cemetery. ... From green burial to glass orbs containing ashes, the norms of funerals and burials are broadening as religious affiliation declines. ... According to a 2021 survey by Pew Research, 3 in 10 American adults are religiously unaffiliated. Data compiled by Pew Research about the Pittsburgh metro region found that 50% of adults in the region describe religion as “very important” and nearly 20% consider themselves not religious. Shifts in faith and worship mean families as well as businesses related to death and dying have had to alter their approaches.

Workplace Violence Prevention Plan Implementation: Answers to Frequently Asked QuestionsLCW, California Public Agency Labor & Employment Bolg; 3/13/24With the enactment of [California] Senate Bill (“SB”) 553, the legislature amended Labor Code section 6401.7 and added Labor Code section 6401.9, requiring employers to adopt and implement a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (“WVPP”) and corresponding training for their employees by July 1, 2024. ... Since the enactment of the bill, employers have had questions regarding the WVPP and the training requirements. Below are some common questions and the responses to them: ... [Click on the article's title to view]

Funerals becoming a thing of the past as end-of-life rituals change County Life, by Sharon Harrison; 2/16/24As times are changing, more and more people don’t want a traditional, religious funeral and instead are seeking alternatives to align with present day values. 

‘A really low blow’: Michigan environmentalists say town banned all cemeteries to stop them from opening ‘green burial ground’Law & Crime, by Elura Nanos; 1/23/24A Michigan couple is asking a state court to strike down a local ordinance banning all cemeteries that they say was put in place just to stop them from opening the environmentally friendly burial ground they had planned for over a decade.

A looming crisis: Millennials caring for aging parentsFalls Church News-Press, by Brian Reach; 1/11/24... Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, comprise roughly 73 million Americans. By 2030, all boomers, and over 70 million Americans in total, will be ages 65 and older. This represents an at least 25 percent increase in the number of senior citizens — in just over five years.

The Language of Hospice Can Help Us Get Better at Discussing DeathTIMEDecember 18, 2023Just because death is inevitable doesn’t make it easy or natural to talk about. In a new study, researchers wondered if hospice workers—experts in end-of-life care—had lessons to teach the rest of us when it came to speaking with patients and families about death. Daniel Menchik, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Arizona who studies the use of language in different fields of medicine, spent eight months sitting in on team meetings at a hospice care facility that were also open to patients’ families. ... In the study, Menchik noticed that hospice workers used three different types of verbs in meetings with family members: predictive, subjunctive, and imperative. Predictive verbs are used to assert things about the future and include words like “will” and “going to.” Imperative verbs carry a similar firmness, but include a call to action; the most common one Menchik encounters in medical settings is “should.” Subjunctive verbs convey some sort of personal stance when talking about the future. “Think,” “feel,” “want,” and many other expressive phrases fall in this category. When a family starts hospice care, “their capabilities to engage in intense conversations [about death] are usually pretty limited,” Menchik says. But he believes that hospice workers help bridge that gap by minimizing their use of imperative verbs. In meetings he observed, imperative verbs made up just 17% of the verb phrases used by hospice professionals. That’s fairly uncommon in medicine. Editor's Note: Use this article to examine the language used in your team meetings; to strengthen your orientation of employees from non-hospice settings; to engage your admissions nurses in a lively dialogue about its applicability to their experiences with patients and families.

It’s your funeral—Here’s how to plan so your loved ones don’t have toUnion Democrat (Sonora, CA)November 28, 2023Just 10% of people have told a funeral home in writing what their funeral plans are, according to NFDA surveys, and an even smaller share have pre-paid for their arrangements. So whether you are pre-planning your own funeral—as experts highly recommend by either talking with a funeral home or including it within your estate planning—or helping with a loved one’s arrangements, here are a few basics to start the conversation...