Caregiver Revolution

Got this notification from a friend. I haven’t examined it in detail but on the surface it looks like a good thing…if it can get through the legislative channels…

We are excited about progress in the California Legislature and want to
share the good news with you right away. If it passes in the full
Legislature, Compassion & Choices’ Right to Know End-of-Life Options Act
will be the first law of its kind in the nation. Patients will gain the
right to receive full and frank disclosure of all their legal
end-of-life options, if they ask for this information. Our usual
opponents, Right-to-Lifers and radical disability activists, oppose even
the right to a candid conversation! But with the state’s medical
association at our side in this fight, we believe we will be able to put
this bill on Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk by autumn.

The California State Assembly voted 41-32 Wednesday on the Terminal
Patients’ Right to Know End-of-Life Options Act, AB 2747 (Berg-Levine).
Upon a dying patient’s request, the Right to Know End-of-Life Options
Act requires a physician to provide counsel on the range of care options
available. These options include hospice care, voluntary stopping eating
and drinking, refusal or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatments,
palliative care and palliative sedation.

The bill will serve as a national model for conversations about
end-of-life care.

“We know from research terminally ill patients do not always get all the
information they want,” said Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a bill co-sponsor.

In California, she pointed out, three out of four terminally ill
patients don’t access hospice until just a few days before they die.

Thirty years ago, California led the nation by giving people the right
to express their wishes for health care in advance. It’s time to take
this next step to ensure that terminally-ill patients have all of the
information that they need to make timely and informed decisions
regarding their care. Information and counseling regarding end-of-life
care options is essential for many terminally ill patients and their
families. It can help the patient weigh all of their options and make an
informed decision that best meets their needs. It gives the physician an
opportunity to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of all available
treatments, and it can facilitate earlier access to hospice care.

“Dying patients needlessly suffer due to a lack of essential
information,” said Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee.
“As a result, many spend their last days in agony. Too many patients
make the most important decision of their lives — how they will spend
their final days — without being fully informed of their legal rights.”

The Right to Know Act will now go to the California Senate for
consideration.

The Spiritual Care Collaborative, is inviting 90-minute workshop proposals for the Spiritual Care Summit ‘09 at Walt Disney World®, Florida, February 1-4, 2009 see http://www.spiritualcarecollaborative.org/scc_summit09.asp

We have been working on “Ten Steps to do a Reading” and it is going well. It will be a little handbook with pointers as to how to set up a reading space and gauge if the reading is going well. Ultimately, only one thing is required in order to do a reading for the benefit of another being: the desire to help that being. Typically one thinks of the Tibetan tradition, the books of the dead, when referencing the art of reading. I use the American Book of the Dead by EJ Gold because has the same bardo guidance material but is more culturally relevant. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche is a good source book on this as well as Luminous Emptiness by Francesca Fremantle and several texts of Robert Thurman

Each July, the National Center for Death Education (NCDE) hosts a summer institute on the campus of Mount Ida. This annual program is made up of a series of workshops focused on grief, loss and bereavement. Participants explore counseling and educational techniques that include building interpersonal skills and assessing individual needs. Through continued participation in NCDE programs, including the summer institute and completion of a scholarly project focused on one specific area, individuals can earn a Certificate in Thanatology.

2008 Summer Institute

July 21, 2008
An Attachment Theory Perspective on Adjustment to Bereavement

July 22, 2008
Children, Death and Grief

July 23, 2008
Late Adolescent and Young Adult Loss

July 24, 2008
NEHS: Transcendence in Theory and Practice**

July 25, 2008
NEHS: Advanced Diversity Skills for Practitioners**

**Thursday and Friday is a two day seminar on New Ethics of the Human Spirit. However, each day is a complete workshop and can be taken individually.

Register

All workshops run 9:30 – 4:30
(Registration and continental breakfast begin at 8:30)
For more information, contact NCDE at ncde@mountida.edu

The AHNA conference is getting close, June 2-5, and rooms are selling out at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, NH. Looks like it is going to be terrific. Check their website for details. www.ahna.org

First a definition: death is the separation of the soul from the body, a phenomenon we can’t know has happened with moral certainty until corruption has begun. “Death” does not mean the cessation of breathing or heartbeat, nor does “brain death” mean that death has occured. The soul isn’t “in” the heart, or “in” the lungs, or “in the brain, or “in” any particular part of the body. The treatment of the dying, the apparently dead, and their organs is goverened by this Truth.

Now, a person confronting death should receive the Sacrament of Unction for the possible restoration of body (His will be done) and, most importantly, soul. This is of prime importance and should never be neglected.

Other ways to help prepare the sick person for death are to pray the Holy Rosary (focusing on the Sorrowful Mysteries), the Divine Mercy Chaplet, to St. Joseph (the Patron of the dying) for a holy death, etc. — with the sick person, if possible, or in such a manner that he can hear you. This includes audible prayer for the unconscious; never think that those who are unconscious or in a coma can’t hear you!

The sick person should have a Crucifix (a St. Benedict Medal Crucifix, if possible) in view, perhaps to hold if he can, and should be encouraged to offer up his sufferings and to trust in the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. A lit blessed candle, as a symbol of the sick person’s Baptism — a symbol of sanctifying grace and the promise of eternal life — should be placed nearby so he can see the flame (unless oxygen tanks are in use, of course!).

You’ll note that the Catholic way of death is different from that of other “Christian” groups. We don’t try to sanitize it and avoid the topic. We don’t speak in euphemisms about it. We don’t take salvation for granted, except the salvation of the souls of baptized children who’ve died before the age of reason (but we, of course, trust in the mercy of God for all others). And we don’t consider it a sin or, at the least, a faux-pas to mourn. While we don’t exactly “sit shiva,” we don’t see jumping up and down and singing happy songs as the natural reaction to having to miss someone until one’s own death. In other words, it’s OK to rend garments and weep; these things are not expressions of a “lack of faith,” but are normal, natural reactions to the evil of death, and to missing someone and realizing that it will be some time before you see him again, Deo volente.

It must be remembered that sickness and death are great, great evils; they were not “supposed” to be a part of this world, and came about as a consequence of the sin of Adam. Christ, of course, conquered the tomb and gives us the hope of eternal life. Catholics, then, look at death for what it is — an evil — but cling to the hope He offers, trusting in His Divine Mercy while also realizing that He is Just. Christ Himself wept before the dead Lazarus.

Now, the sick person shouldn’t be denied the Truth of his situation any more than those around him should lie to themselves. It is not a loving act to ignore reality out of fear of not wanting to alarm the sick one, and to do so is to imperil his everlasting soul. The dying person needs to face his mortality, to repent, to pray, to receive Unction, to be encouraged to trust totally in Jesus and His forgiveness and love, etc. He must spiritually prepare himself for judgement, and to help him do this is the single greatest act of love you can offer.