End-Of-Life Care for Hawaii’s Ohana
Funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging,
National Family Caregiver Demonstration Project (2002-2004)
This
project is exploring the impact of group-targeted messages and individually
tailored support on end-of-life planning by family caregivers of elders
receiving long-term care (LTC) services.
Four
booklets have been developed:
o
Advance Care Planning:
Making Choices Known
o
Planning Ahead:
Funeral and Memorial Services
o
Preparing to Say
Good-bye: Care for the Dying
o
Help for the Bereaved:
Surviving and Adapting to Change
Because
research shows that print messages alone have limited success in changing
end-of-life planning behaviors, caregivers also are offered a choice of
individually tailored supplemental support—group training, telephone
counseling, or assistance from service providers.
Partners
in this research include:
o
Castle Medical Center
Caregivers Group
o
Department of Health,
Case Management Services, Kona
o
Honolulu Gerontology
Program
o
Honolulu Meals on
Wheels
o
Hospice of Kona
o
Kokua Kalihi Valley
Elderly Services
o
Kona Adult Day Center
o
Kona Community
Hospital
o
Life Care Center at
Kona
o
Maluhia Nursing Home
o
Nursing Home Without
Walls
o
Project Dana
o
St. Francis Dialysis
Center, West Hawaii
o
West Hawaii Home
Health Services, Inc.
The
project will: identify the stage of caregivers of elders receiving LTC; provide
600 caregivers with appropriate message booklets and their choice of
supplemental support; track changes in end-of-life knowledge, attitudes, and
behaviors (KAB); document culturally linked barriers to end-of-life planning
and strategies to address them; and compare costs of each approach. Expected KAB outcomes include: increased
knowledge of end-of-life issues and resources; improved attitudes toward hospice,
planning for death, and dying at home; and completion and communication of
advance directives (AD) and other end-of-life planning documents.
For more information, contact Dr. Harumi Karel at 956-8916 or Ana Zir at 956-5771.