Literature Review

LifeCare Home Health & Hospice Family launches new website to make finding home-based care easier The Best Times, Irving, TX; by LifeCare Home Health Family; 9/14/26 LifeCare Home Health & Hospice Family has launched a new corporate website designed to make it easier for patients, families, referral partners and healthcare professionals to understand LifeCare's growing family of companies and connect with home health, hospice and in-home care services in their communities. Introduced earlier this year, the new website at lchhfamily.com serves as a centralized digital resource for LifeCare's network of locally operated healthcare organizations.

Retired educator gives back to grieving children at Camp Braveheart WJAR-10, NBC, Cranston, RI; by Patrice Wood; 9/9/26 Young hearts come together at Camp Braveheart in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. And the first person to greet them when they get off the bus is Harry Potter. Potter is a retired Rhode Island school educator with a famous name and a heart of gold. They come Camp Braveheart to begin to heal after the death of a loved one. Braveheart is now in its 20th year and much of that time, Potter has been a trusted counselor. "The little kids think I'm magical. You see them running around the camp saying, 'Harry Potter, Harry Potter,'" Potter said. That connection eventually opens the door for a more serious conversation.

Hospice Alliance marks 45 years of care Sept. 25 Racine County Eye, Pleasant Prairie, WI; 9/14/26 Hospice Alliance is celebrating 45 years of serving families in southeastern Wisconsin, marking an anniversary that dates to Sept. 25, 1981, when community members founded the organization to expand access to end-of-life care and family support. ... The organization’s services include care provided in private homes, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, as well as at its Hospice Alliance Hospice House in Pleasant Prairie, according to the announcement. The nonprofit said it remains guided by a mission of “Adding Life to Days” and provides care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.

Aviva Senior Living partners with Empath Tidewell Hospice to support Tikvah, Sarasota’s first Jewish hospice program NEWSnet, Sarasota, FL; by EIN Presswire; 9/15/26 Aviva Senior Living is proud to partner with Empath Tidewell Hospice, Sarasota’s leading provider of end-of-life care, to launch a new Jewish hospice program called Tikvah. Led by Sepi Ackerman, Director of Jewish Community Development at Tidewell Hospice, Tikvah is the first program of its kind in Sarasota. It offers specialized services to honor the wishes of Jewish patients and help keep them comfortable during their final days. ... The program provides many services, such as service boxes that bring religious traditions like Shabbat to a patient’s bedside, on-call clergy through a coalition of local rabbis, Jewish vigils, Jewish music, and more. Patients and families can join Tikvah for free as part of their existing Tidewell care.

Sunday newsletters focus on headlines and top read stories of the last week (in order) - enjoy!

Missed opportunities for goals-of-care conversations in a patient with end-stage juvenile Huntington’s disease: A case reportAmerican Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine; by Ignacio Borque, Nuria Perez ´ de Lucas, Alicia Gonzalez, Eduardo Bruera; 8/26Juvenile Huntington’s disease (JHD) is a rare, severe neurodegenerative disorder with early onset, high symptom burden, and a predictable trajectory toward advanced disability and premature death. Despite this, goals-of-care (GOC) conversations and advance care planning are often delayed, leading to reactive, crisis-driven decisions and increased emotional burden for families and clinicians. We present a 30-year-old woman with genetically confirmed JHD, diagnosed at age 14, who declined progressively over more than 15 years. Despite longstanding neurological follow-up and repeated hospital admissions, palliative care referral occurred only 20 days before death. Late palliative care integration limited anticipatory planning and shifted complex decisions into a stage with little room for deliberation, when cognitive and clinical deterioration constrained meaningful participation.

Top ten tips palliative care clinicians should know when caring for seriously ill patients with stimulant use disordersJournal of Palliative Medicine; by Rebekka DePew, Nicole Dussault, Kyle Quirk, Erin Vipler, Josh Borris, Sandra DiScala, Teddy Scheel, Katrina Nickels, Gregg Robbins-Welty, Janet Ho; 8/26Stimulant use disorder (StUD) is common in the hospice and palliative care (PC) setting, though guidance for clinicians remains limited. Stigma around stimulant use is widespread and can lead to impaired clinician/patient communication, poor symptom control, and lower quality of care. PC clinicians should be able to diagnose StUD, understand the potential pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic management options, engage with patients in a trauma-informed way, and refer to addiction medicine colleagues when appropriate. When utilizing opioids for pain management, PC clinicians should be aware of the impact of stimulant use on opioid risk and toxicity. In this article, a multidisciplinary group of PC, hospice, addiction medicine, psychiatry, ethics, and pharmacy clinicians presents ten practical tips for caring for seriously ill patients with current or prior StUD.

Saturday newsletters focus on headlines and research - enjoy!

The role of hospice and palliative care in addressing climate changeAmerican Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine; by Erik S. Carlson, Nisha Shah, Jill Denny,  Aldebra Schroll, Daniel Mahoney, Sarah Schear, Kate Jennings, Collins Uzuegbu, David Harris, Bhargavi Chekuri, Cecilia Sorensen, Janet Bull, Chris Jones; 8/26Climate change is a defining global health challenge of our time, acting as a threat multiplier that erodes decades of health gains and worsens social inequities. People living with serious illness, the population served by Hospice and Palliative Care (HaPC) professionals, are particularly vulnerable to these impacts. While leading health organizations have acknowledged the public health implications of climate change, HaPC has remained largely absent from this discourse. This narrative review and framework proposal situates the field’s competencies within the growing climate and health literature and identifies avenues through which HaPC can contribute to addressing climate change. We argue that HaPC professionals — drawing on strengths in serious illness communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, and person-centered care — are uniquely positioned to advance equitable climate adaptation and mitigation at the individual, organizational, and societal levels.

The strategic trifecta: Aligning AI, data and cybersecurity for real outcomes McKnights Senior Living; by Adam Arker; 9/16/26 The use of artificial intelligence is the No. 1 topic in the senior living industry these days, and for good reason. AI is positioned to transform our world more than any previous technological revolution, including both electricity and the internet. ... If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: The goal for senior living providers related to AI should be to build the data discipline and security foundation that lets AI work safely, consistently and at scale. Organizations that get those fundamentals right will move faster in the long run, and they’ll be able to adopt new tools with confidence instead of constantly starting over and losing money on failed experiments.

When to stop coaching and get someone off the bus Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); by Chris Comeaux; 9/17/26 One of the hardest leadership decisions is determining when coaching has run its course and when it’s time to help someone exit the team. Great leaders want to believe every person can succeed with enough support, enough clarity, enough encouragement, or enough time. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it isn’t. ... There are three principles that help leaders navigate this difficult decision with clarity and compassion. ...