Social Worker Rosie Gaston talks about getting back to the basics of what matters most to start an advance care plan.  Reflecting on values and beliefs is a great starting place.  The next step is having conversations with people who matter most to us (along with healthcare providers) to communicate the kind of care we want when our bodies begin to shut down, and what embodies quality of life.  When should we make an advance care plan?  Rosie recommends anyone over 18 make an ACP and revisit it whenever there’s a life change.  End of life wishes change and ACP should change to stay in alignment with who we are.  Getting a life-altering or serious diagnosis, changing marital status, or having a change in healthcare provider are all milestones where review of an advance care plan should happen.  Have the conversations early, have them often.   

Connect with Rosie Gaston, MSW, LICSW, APHSW-C: www.ABetterEnding.org Socials for Rosie Gaston:  IG   

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible.  And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help.  Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95.  If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions.  A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer

Website:  theheartofhospice.com

Social media:  Facebook     Twitter    Instagram   LinkedIn

Email:  [email protected]

More podcast episodes:  The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Hospice Nurse Julie McFadden is using TikTok to teach over 1 million followers what death really looks like.  As a nurse with 15 years of experience in end of life care, she’s seen all the ups and downs of community-based bedside hospice care.  Julie also spent years working in ICU, and learned the intense needs of the dying.  Her book Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully prepares readers for death and dying, with stories interwoven throughout.  Her newest book is The Nothing to Fear Journal: Questions and Reflections for Demystifying and Preparing for the End of Life.  The journal has four sections that give prompts to help the user’s writing process.  The sections cover anything and everything related to dying, including beliefs and fears, how to have end of life conversations, ways to ask for help, and practical tips for planning your own end of life experience.  Who should read the books?  Hospice Nurse Julie says they’re for anyone who’s going to die. 

Links to Hospice Nurse Julie’s book, journal, socials, and website: Nothing to Fear The Nothing to Fear Journal https://www.hospicenursejulie.com/ https://www.instagram.com/hospicenursejulie https://www.tiktok.com/@hospicenursejulie https://www.youtube.com/@hospicenursejulie https://www.facebook.com/people/Hospice-nurse-julie/100077937666311

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible.  And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help.  Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95.  If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions.  A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer

Website:  theheartofhospice.com Social media:  Facebook     Twitter    Instagram   LinkedIn Email:  [email protected] More podcast episodes:  The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Dr. Jessica Zitter sees how hard family caregivers work and it inspires her to keep going as a physician and caregiver advocate.  Working as a critical care and palliative care physician, an author, and a documentary film maker has positioned Dr. Zitter uniquely to advocate for caregivers and the heavy burden of family caregivers.  Jessica has had personal experiences working as part of an interdisciplinary team that have made her a better practitioner and doctor, and more aware of her own biases. Here are some highlights of this conversation: • The size of the caregiver workforce in the U.S. has grown to 63 million as of 2025. • Caregiving from a distance carries its own set of stressors, including increased financial burden. • Working in an interdisciplinary team can create accountability among the various disciplines. • Implicit and explicit bias influences the quality of the healthcare people receive. • Teams need to make space for every discipline, and it’s the responsibility of those professionals to step forward and claim their seats.  Connect with Reel Medicine Media at reelmedicinemedia.org Find information about The Chaplain and The Doctor Find information about Caregiver: A Love Story Watch the trailer for Extremis here Find Dr. Zitter’s book Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life here Text the word “caring” to 66866 to recieve the Reel Media newsletter and get a free resource guide to chaplaincy. Social media for Dr. Jessica Zitter:  IG   Facebook   X   LinkedIn   YouTube   Vimeo

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible.  And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help.  Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95.  If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions.  A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer Website:  theheartofhospice.com Social media:  Facebook     Twitter    Instagram   LinkedIn Email:  [email protected] Find more podcast episodes of  The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Palliative Care Chaplain Cody Hufstedler shares the end of life experiences of his patients and their families using compassion, healthy boundaries, and a little bit of humor.  After 12 years of working as a chaplain, he’s seen the best and worst of death and dying.  Cody believes his job is to help people work through changes when bad news happens, and help them pivot back to the values they hold most dear.  He’s stepping into the place where panic happens and works to be the calm inside the chaos.  

As host of The Dying to Tell You Podcast, Cody features one-on-one conversations with guests who are living with a serious illness—including cancer, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), Alzheimer's disease, brain cancer, multiple myeloma, and other terminal diagnoses. These aren't patients of his; ethical boundaries are carefully maintained. These are intimate dialogues with people from across the country and around the world who are willing to share their experiences with mortality.  Listen to The Dying to Tell You Podcast Check out The Caring Perspective Podcast here and here.

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible.  And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help.  Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95.  If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions.  A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer

Website:  theheartofhospice.com Social media:  Facebook     Twitter    Instagram   LinkedIn Email:  [email protected] More podcast episodes:  The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Jessica Guthrie is more than a millennial caregiver - she’s an advocate using her voice to change how we approach the care of loved ones. When her mom Constance was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at 66 and Jessica was 26, Jessica began coordinating her care from a distance. The trajectory of the disease soon required a move to be closer to Constance. Jessica describes it as “a shock to the system” as she began trying to figure out how to manage her mom’s care. None of her friends were talking about caregiving or Alzheimer’s disease. In the ten years since the diagnosis, there have been ups and downs in Jessica’s caregiving journey, including admission and discharge (and readmission) to hospice.

Jessica Guthrie founded When Career & Caregiving Collide, sharing what she’s learned to empower other caregivers. She’s teaching and speaking, featured in podcasts and webinars. You can find Jessica Guthrie at jessicacguthrie.com      Find Jessica on social media: Instagram  LinkedIn Check out interviews and articles about Jessica here.

You can find the Approaching Death Support Kit at bkbooks.com. Find all of Barbara Karnes’ products and resources at bkbooks.com. Read Barbara’s blog at bkbooks.com. Connect with Barbara Karnes on Facebook IG LinkedIn Twitter (X)  YouTube

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible. And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care. If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help. Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95. If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions. A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer

Website: theheartofhospice.com

Social media: Facebook  Twitter  Instagram LinkedIn

Email: [email protected]

More podcast episodes: The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

When dementia is the diagnosis, end of life discussions can be intense and heartbreaking.  Hospice social workers Lisa Pahl and Jessica Empeno shed light on how to make things easier.  Whether the dementia diagnosis is the primary (or terminal) diagnosis, or it is happening alongside another serious illness, the topics to be considered are complex.  Everything from incontinence management to feeding tubes to ventilator support needs to be addressed.  Talks about advance care planning should happen early and often, and include healthcare teams, family members, and anyone who might be involved in the caregiving group.  

The Dementia Deck is one of the great tools out there to facilitate advance care plan conversations when there’s a dementia diagnosis in the mix.   You can connect with Lisa Pahl (co-creator of The Dementia Deck) at thedeathdeck.com. Purchase your The Dementia Deck here. Check out The Death Deck here. Get a copy of The EOL Deck here. Follow The Death Deck:  Insta     Facebook     TikTok

Visit the Compassion and Choices website to access the Dementia Values and Priorities Tool here. Read more about the Dementia Values and Priorities Tool at compassionandchoices.org Follow Compassion and Choices:  Insta     Facebook     YouTube     LinkedIn     Bluesky

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible.  And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help.  Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95.  If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions.  A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer Website:  theheartofhospice.com Social media:  Facebook     Twitter    Instagram   LinkedIn Email:  [email protected]

More podcast episodes:  The Heart of Hospice Podcast

The team at Caring House is supporting the dying with compassion and respect, and a willingness to say yes to every end of life wish. Caring House is more than a non-profit organization; it’s a home focused on helping residents and families through the end-of-life experience. It’s the only one of its kind in Los Angeles County. Executive Director David Zartman and Resident Care Manager Joanna Franco lead the Caring House team to empower the dying and their caregivers. Admission to Caring House is open to all regardless of who they are, and support is provided 24/7. The Caring House staff take on the caregiving responsibilities, giving families time to simply be at the bedside of their person. Dying with dignity and comfort is their top priority.

Donating to the work Caring House is a great way to honor someone you’ve lost. You can make your donation to support their work here. 

If you want more information about the Omega Home Network, visit omegahomenetwork.org

Connect with the work of Caring House at yourcaringhouse.org

Follow Caring House on social media:  Instagram  Facebook  YouTube

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible. And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care. If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help. Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95. If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions. A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer

Website: theheartofhospice.com

Social media: Facebook  Twitter  Instagram LinkedIn

Email: [email protected]

More podcast episodes: The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Elizabeth Johnson is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Peaceful Presence Project, a community-based organization in Oregon dedicated to fostering compassionate end-of-life care. Her commitment to supporting end of life planning for the unhoused population is deep, leading her to companion homeless individuals to help them complete their advance directives. The Peaceful Presence Project offers numerous resources, including end of life doula training and a free downloadable resource called End Notes that guides the user in gathering the documents their loved ones will need, and the wishes they want honored, into one place. The End Notes workbook comes in both digital and printable formats.  

Find the work of the Peaceful Presence Project: Website: thepeacefulpresence.org Learn more about The Peaceful Presence Project Connect with their End of Life Doula Course Download the End Notes resource here Social media for the Peaceful Presence Project:  Instagram  LinkedIn

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible. And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help. Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95. If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions. A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer Website: theheartofhospice.com Social media: Facebook  Twitter  Instagram LinkedIn Email: [email protected] More podcast episodes: The Heart of Hospice Podcast

Suzanne O’Brien has spent the last 20 years serving the dying, and supporting the ones who serve at the bedside.  As a hospice nurse and founder of Doula Givers, she finds purpose and meaning in working with patients at end of life.  After working most of her nursing career in oncology and hospice, Suzanne saw the gaps in care for people with advanced diseases. This led to the creation of the award-winning program  DoulaGivers: End of Life  End of Life Doula Training, Eldercare Doula Training, and Doulagiver Care Consultant Training.   Today, Suzanne has combined her years of training, education, and experience to create The Doulagivers® Institute for Higher Learning featuring the Doulagivers® Life Class and Wellness Membership. This membership was created to support people everywhere with the tools, education and mentorship they need to live their best, fullest, and healthiest life possible.

Connect with Suzanne O’Brien Website: doulagivers.com Get free resources from DoulaGivers here. Read Suzanne’s blog here. Purchase your copy of The Good Death by Suzanne B. O’Brian at thegooddeathbook.com

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible.  And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help.  Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95.  If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions.  A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer Website:  theheartofhospice.com Social media:  Facebook     Twitter    Instagram   LinkedIn Email:  [email protected] More podcast episodes:  The Heart of Hospice Podcast

We’re excited to feature a roundtable discussion with a group of amazing hospice nurses discussing what makes a “good death” and the rituals they’ve created for themselves and caregivers.  Jean Ann Menna, Carrie Oram, and Shelley Henry have many years of end of life nursing experience.  Along with Helen, they share the many facets of helping patients create good deaths for themselves.  This conversation is a great inside look into how hospice nurses care for families when death occurs. 

Find Jean Anne Menna and her book “Go with Grace: A Simple Guide to Caring for Someone on Hospice” here. 

Connect with guest Carrie Oram at Angel Heart Holistics here.

Find Shelley Henry and Amity Staffing at amitystaffing.com

Podcast host Helen Bauer is a great addition to your event or conference! For speaking inquiries, send an email to [email protected].

Hospice Navigation Services understands that you need unbiased, expert support to have the best end of life experience possible.  And we believe you deserve to get good hospice care.  If you have questions about hospice care for yourself or someone you care about, Hospice Navigation Services can help.  Whether you want to connect by phone or video, you can book a FREE 30-Minute Hospice Navigation Session, or a more in-depth 60-Minute Navigation Session for $95.  If you need to troubleshoot the care you’re already receiving, we’re here to answer your questions.  A 60-Minute Navigation Session by video call allows up to 3 family members to get the same expert information at the same time. Book a session with an expert Hospice Navigator at theheartofhospice.com.  

Connect with The Heart of Hospice Podcast and host Helen Bauer

Website:  theheartofhospice.com

Social media:  Facebook     Twitter    Instagram   LinkedIn

Email:  [email protected]

More podcast episodes:  The Heart of Hospice Podcast