Local Events and Workshops
The next Mid-South Comfort Care Coalition community meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 7, from 5:30 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. in the activity room of Trezevant Terrace, located at 3437 Waynoka Ave. As usual, the meeting will be a potluck. If you plan to bring food, please e-mail Emily at efoxhill@aol.com to let her know what you will bring. Trezevant will supply bread, salad, tea, and coffee. The program will be a panel discussion on the topic of Financial Planning: Covering All the Bases. With people living longer, their living expenses, and particularly health care costs, often exhaust their finances and leave families without adequate resources. Panel members Mary Ann Capocacci, MS, RN; David Skinner, BBA; and Michelle Wilson will discuss financial planning considerations, including insurance, Medicare, and investments.
Mary Ann Capocaccia has more then twenty five years of professional management experience involving progressive responsibilities in large tertiary care hospitals and in long term care. She has served as the Director of Quality Management/Case Management for St. Francis Hospital, as well as Administrator of their Skilled Care Nursing Unit. She has provided consultation services for St. Peter Villa nursing home, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Guardian Home Health. Mary Ann is a volunteer nursing home ombudsman, the Parish Nurse Coordinator for St. Francis of Assisi Parish, and a past president of the Mid-South Comfort Care Coalition. She is a member of Mid-South Biomedical Ethics Center and has served on the ethics committees of both St. Francis Hospital and Baptist Hospital.
David A. Skinner, Jr., graduated from Memphis State University with a BBA in finance and a minor in economics. He is an Account Executive with Calton & Associates, Inc., a regional firm founded in 1987 and based in Tampa, Florida. Calton is a fully disclosed broker-dealer clearing through Southwest Secruities, Inc. and offering a wide range of investments, including brokered certificates of deposit, U.S. government & agency securities, and mortgage backed securities & CMOs. David has a conservative approach to investing and over 25 years experience working with investors. He has seen many different market scenarios during this time and will share his ideas on ways to safely protect and enhance the yield on one's investments. Also, as a family caregiver, he served as trustee for his late mother's revocable living trust and can discuss his experiences in that capacity.
Michelle Wilson is a local State Farm Agent in the East Memphis area. Originally from California, she moved to Tennessee 15 years ago and been in the Financial Services industry since 2001. She was a Bank Officer for Patriot Bank and then came on board with State Farm. In 2006 Michelle's mother lost a long battle with lung cancer . Because her mother became unable to work, many of her health benefits were lost; and all her assets and retirement savings were used to pay medical bills. Michelle decided to become an Agent because she wanted to help people know that there were ways they could help protect their loved ones and ease some of the financial burden during an illness or hardship. She is happily married and, as a proud mother of three, desires to help individuals and families protect what is most important to them. As an Agent in our community, she helps build relationships with clients while providing valuable protection plans to help people do just that. She will speak about how audience members can manage risk, recover from the unexpected, and help to realize their dreams through protection plans and services like Long Term Care Insurance, Life Insurance, and an array of products specific to each person’s specific needs.
Waynoka Ave. crosses Highland between Walnut Grove and Sam Cooper Boulevard. Turn west off Highland onto Waynoka, and the Trezevant entrance will be on your left. Tell the guard that you will be attending the Comfort Care meeting. Instead of parking just inside the entrance in front of Trezevant Manor, you may want to circle around behind the Manor and park in front of Trezevant Terrace. Go right across the parking lot as you enter, and then left. Circle to your left, and you will come out in front of the Terrace. Enter through the double doors and turn right in front of the desk. The activity room where we will meet will be the second door on your right.
Elder Initiative
Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center
Your Wishes, Your Choices: An Advance Healthcare Planning Seminar will be held Tuesday, February 7, 2012, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center, 829 S. Cooper, in the Cooper-Young neighborhood of Memphis.
This important planning, in advance of medical emergencies, can ensure legal status for whoever you choose to be your advocate if you can't speak for yourself. Planning now can also bring peace of mind to loved ones during any serious health crisis in the future.
This health event is FREE and open to the public.
For location information, contact MGLCC at 901-278-6422 or www.mglcc.org
For questions about the seminar, contact the facilitator, Rev. Ayla Heartsong, at 901-326-8861.
The Alzheimer's Association African American Conference: Advancing Awareness of Alzheimer's Among African Americans will be held from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM at the Baptist Memorial Hospital Auditorium at 6027 Walnut Grove Road. Lunch will be provided and vendors will be available for community resources. The conference is free, but space is limited. You must be pre-registered by February 24, 2012. Call 901-565-0011 to register. Download a PDF Here
The HIV/AIDS Network 2012: Responding to Challenges in the Mid-South conference will be held on March 8-9 in the Student Alumni Center of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at 800 Madison Avenue. There are separate breakout tracks for administrators, allied health professionals, and consumers and community stakeholders. There is also a leadership academy for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) that requires attendance the entire two days. Fees are $20 before February 10, $25 after February 10, and $35 at the door. Scholarships are available for PLWHA. Contact information: e-mail: RWProgram@shelbycountytn.gov phone: 901-379-7527. Download a PDF here
The 2011 edition of the American Hospice Association's report, NHPCO Facts and Figures: Hospice Care in America, is available at www.nhpco.org/files/public/Statistics_Research/2011_Facts_Figures.pdf
For a Washington Post article by Memphis infectious disease physician Manoj Jain on the prognoses of terminally ill individuals, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/when-terminally-ill-patients-ask-how-long-they-have-doctors-find-it-hard-to-say/2011/09/23/gIQALTzm4O_story.html?utm_source=MJainMD.com_Subscribers&utm_campaign=c352ac62a9-MJainMD.com+%3A+Newsletter+Nov-Dec+2011&utm_medium=email
The Comfort Care Coalition is currently funded by the H. W. Durham
foundation to implement a pilot vigiling program in which staff and
community volunteers will sit with nursing home residents who are actively
dying. The pilot site is Applingwood Healthcare Center, which already
has an active palliative care program and a special private room for
actively dying residents and their family members. The CCC will provide
inservice training on vigiling based on the No One Dies Alone material
for Applingwood staff. Methodist Healthcare has agreed to assist in
the training and badging of community volunteers. The Congregational
Health Network, a CCC partner, offers a six-week Care of the Dying class
that will serve as a prerequisite for community vigiling volunteers.
To qualify as a nursing home vigiling volunteer, community members must
attend the Care for the Dying class, go through the Methodist corporate
compliance workshop, and provide proof of immunization. They will then
be badged as Methodist volunteers and will be eligible to serve as nursing
home vigilers. Our hope is to extend this program to other nursing homes
locally.
The next Care for the Dying class will begin on January 26, 2012, with
classes at both Methodist University Hospital and Methodist Hospital
Germantown. To register, please contact Ms. Sandra Moore at (901) 516-7481.
Living, Loving, and Dying Well Conference: On Saturday, December 4, 2010 the Mid-South Comfort Care Coalition, in collaboration with the Sanofi-Aventis Community Health Partnership, presented a conference, Living, Loving, and Dying Well. We are offering some of the materials used in the various presentations to the general public.
Program for Living, Loving, and Dying Well Conference Dec. 04, 2010
Jane Owen, MSN, RN: Plenary Lecture:The Naturalness of Dying: Looking Back to the Future PDF of Powerpoint
Norman Mitchell Jr., BA, MDiv, Crossroads Hospice, Breavement Counselor: Plenary Lecture: Vigiling: Being Present with Those Who Are Dying PDF of Powerpoint
Norman Mitchell Jr., BA, MDiv, Crossroads Hospice, Breavement Counselor: Breakout Session: Grief and Grieving PDF of Powerpoint
Diane Polly, BS, MS, JD: Nutrition annd Dying: Food for the Soul: Eat, Drink and Be Comforted PDF of Powerpoint
Janet Watson, BSW, BBA, MS ,Licensed Clinical Social Worker: Touch at the End of Life PDF of Powerpoint