Overall Design: Used by Hospice for grief therapy and volunteer training, readings from They Live On: Saying Goodbye to Mom and Dad offer a stark but gentle approach to increasing awareness and improving practice related to aging, illness, pastoral, palliative and long-term care. The author reads select passages that correlate with a specific theme, then leads a discussion about the relevance to participants’ own observations and experiences. Each session is 1.5-3 hours long depending on the extent of the behavioral and experiential component, and can be tailored to meet specific training needs. Purchase of the book is recommended by or for participants. Sample themes include the following:
1) The Ministry of Presence: The Importance of Showing Up
2) Walk This Way: The Toll that Caregiving Takes on the Caregiver
3) “I Hate Her Today”: The Strain of Illness on Family Relationships
4) For Better and Worse: An End-of-Life Love Story
5) When a Mother Leaves: A Session for Daughters
6) The Second Time: Finding Your Way as an Adult Orphan
7) Faith on a Respirator: The Struggle to Keep Faith Alive During Long-Term Illness and Loss
8) Mercy Dying: Why Do We Linger?
9) Her Boots: The Sacred Art of Grieving
10) Regret and Doubt: Releasing Long-Term Unfinished Grief (two sessions – book purchase required)
11) Dear Medical Staff: The Importance of Getting it Right
12) Too Old to Dance: Listening to Our Elders
13) Role Reversal: Parenting Your Parents
14) As I Am, So Shall You Be: Confronting Our Own Fears about Aging
15) They Live On: True Stories of Contact After Your Loved One Passes
16) Select Readings from One of the Fifteen Chapters
17) A Brain Tumor: “A Lousy Diagnosis”
18) Christmas: The Cruelest Season
19) Others: A Celebration of Those Who Care for Our Loved Ones (designed for health care providers)
20) This Old Man: Treating Patients with Dignity and Respect (designed for health care providers)
Journal Stories 