Literature Review

Family says bear attack victim to be transferred to hospice care KNWA/KFTA FOX-24, Little Rock, AR; by Justin Trobaugh; 9/9/25 The family of a Franklin County man says Sept. 8 that his condition has worsened and that he has been moved to hospice care. Vernon Patton, 72, is being held at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences after being attacked by a bear in the Mulberry Mountain area of Franklin County on Sept. 3. Patton was working on a gravel road with his tractor near Mulberry Mountain Lodge Park when the black bear attacked, according to Keith Stephens with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC). His son arrived to check on him and saw the bear actively attacking. Editor's Note: Executive leaders, traumatic events like this that lead to a hospice admission call for extra support for your clinical, direct care professionals and volunteers. They can experience secondary trauma as they tend horrific wounds, both physical (for the patient) and emotional (for family and friends). Also, what policies do you have in place to balance important community news and family privacy (e.g. staff or volunteers posting anything on social media).

Caregiving under the Medicare Hospice Benefit JAMA Internal Medicine - Viewpoint Agind and Health; by Helen P. Knight, MD; Richard E. Leiter, MD, MA; Harry J. Han, MD; 9/8/25 As palliative care physicians, we frequently refer patients to hospice care. When we do so, we often worry about them. How will they and their families manage custodial care—the day in, day out, physical and financial demands of caregiving—on top of navigating the inherent challenges of end of life? We know that high-quality hospice agencies provide patients and their families with invaluable support for symptomatic, emotional, and spiritual needs. But in the US, due to constraints of Medicare reimbursement, hospice agencies provide only limited custodial care support; this lack of assistance often is an unwelcome surprise to our patients and families and profoundly shapes their end-of-life experience.

The hidden crisis in serious illness care and how we fix itMedCityNews; by Dr. Mihir Kamdar; 9/7/25 Every year, millions of Americans with serious illnesses find themselves caught in a dangerous limbo: not sick enough to qualify for hospice, but far too ill to be served by our traditional healthcare system. The result is care that’s expensive, fragmented, and often traumatic. These patients are shuffled between a revolving door of emergency rooms and ICUs, enduring a cascade of aggressive interventions that don’t match their goals or improve their quality of life. This approach not only undermines quality, it drives healthcare spending through the roof, particularly in the last year of life. This is the hidden crisis in serious illness care. And it’s getting worse. At the root of the problem is what many in the field call the “hospice cliff.” ...

This is the one question leaders need to ask themselves: To avoid burnout, leaders need to pay attention to their energy levels Forbes - Work Life; by Tim Jack Adams; 9/1/25 You’ve carried the weight of big decisions, the pressure to perform, to lead and deliver, all despite what’s happening behind the scenes. You’ve navigated through uncertainty and change, providing the space for everyone else to thrive. It’s a feeling that the most capable leaders feel. It’s not quite burnout, but a kind of dullness. A slow drain. A fog that creeps in quietly and makes it harder to stay clear, connected, and grounded. ... It's not about time, it's about energy. ...Editor's Note: Twenty years ago, this concept revolutionized my workday, productivity, outcomes, and overall well-bing, via the book The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, by Jim Loehr, published 2003. This author's content is fresh, dated September 2025.

[United Kingdom] Stories of unpaid carers supporting loved ones with dementia at the end of their lives ehospice, London, UK; by NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London; 8/30/25The artwork from Dementia Journeys, a powerful exhibition at Science Gallery London which ran from April to June 2024, can now be viewed online.The Dementia Journeys exhibition was created in response to Empowering Better End-of-Life Dementia Care (EMBED-Care) – a research programme that aims to generate a step-change in how care is provided for people at any age with any type of dementia. 

The Faith Care Family Project: A pilot intervention for African American dementia family caregiversAmerican Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias; Noelle L Fields, Ling Xu, Ishan C Williams, Fayron Epps, Samantha Tinker; 8/25The Faith Care Family (FCF) Project was a telephone based, volunteer-led intervention for African American Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) family caregivers that was piloted in one predominantly African American church. Church volunteers indicated overall significant improvements knowledge of AD/ADRD after the training as well as after the intervention. Quantitative results indicated that caregivers increased their knowledge of dementia, reported improved coping skills, and reported increased positive aspects of caregiving. Feeling a connection, normalizing the challenges of caregiving, gaining or reinforcing knowledge, and sharing community resources were themes from qualitative interviews with the family caregivers.

NorthStar Care Community announces partnership with Beads of Courage Fox 17 - West Michigan;by Nicole Stoner; 8/19/25 Beads Of Courage is an organization that helps pediatric patients document their health journey through beads of different sizes, shapes, and colors. ... NorthStar Care Community, already established for their compassion in pallative and hospice care, has announced a partnership with Beads Of Courage. This time, the partnership honors patients entering hospice care through their own treatment stages, milestones, and moments of courage. ... In addition, the Carry A Bead Initiative invites the public to support these patients on their journey during end-of-life care by carrying a NorthStar Bead with them, then returning it with a message of encouragement. The bead is then gifted to someone in hospice care, ensuring that these patients are not alone in their health journey.

Musical organization brings comfort to hospice patients CBS 19 News, Charlottesville, VA by Jadyn Howard; 8/14/25 The Front Porch, a nonprofit music organization, partners with Hospice of the Piedmont to give musical performances to patients in their final months. "Mom doesn’t know her grandchildren or great-grandchildren, but Clara sings the song and words come out it’s beautiful so something about the brain remembers music," said Beth Johnson, daughter of a patient at Linden House for Assisted Living.  Clara George is a Front Porch musician who performs for Johnson's mother every Thursday. "People who have dementia a lot of times they can felt isolated or lonely or agitated and when I start playing with them I see their hands start to clap and sing along," said George.

Reimagining support for family caregivers and their loved ones Duke University School of Medicine; by Bernadette Gillis; 8/11/25 ... Duke population health researchers are gathering evidence to show what type of care leads to the best physical and mental health for the care recipients, and how to best support the caregivers themselves.  ...

Blindsided: Some nursing homes across the country aggressively pursue friends and relatives for a loved one’s unpaid bill 14 News; by Jill Riepenhoff and Chris Nakamoto; 8/11/25 Toni Cook opened the letter from her mother’s nursing home and cried in horror. Lynn Marie Witt dropped to her knees and sobbed when she read the letter from her mother’s nursing home. Both women — stiff and grief-stricken over the loss of their beloved mothers — learned from those letters that the nursing homes intended to collect their mothers’ unpaid debts from them. Neither had any financial control over their mother’s bank accounts or assets after their deaths, court records say. They simply were loving daughters who signed paperwork to have their mothers admitted to a nursing home.

2 factors fueling disparities in home-based deaths Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 8/11/25 Having a limited understanding about end-of-life care options can hinder patients’ ability to die in the home, recent research has found. This trend is fueling disparities in home-based hospice care. Access to respite care more than doubles the odds of patients having a home death, a recent study found, which was published in the BMC Palliative Care journal. ... Additional significant factors included timely access to community-based nursing services, home health and hospice, as well as the integration of a palliative care approach, the study found.

'I helped him out': Grandson loaded his 90-year-old grandfather 'full of f—ing pain meds' and Ambien to 'ease him' to his 'next life' while stealing his house, police say Law & Order, The Palm Bay, FL; by Chris Perez; 8/12/25 A former county official in Florida claims he "helped" his 90-year-old grandfather out by killing him with a deadly cocktail of Ambien, morphine and other prescription drugs, according to cops. Christopher Balter, 35, is currently charged with delivery of a controlled substance and forgery after he allegedly attempted to forge signatures onto a "quitclaim deed" — a legal document used to transfer ownership of real estate — just weeks before Gilbert Balter's death on Feb. 1, police say. Christopher Balter's arrest affidavit outlines how he allegedly discussed and admitted to friends that he killed his grandpa while the nonagenarian was in home hospice care at a residence in Brevard County earlier this year. He allegedly claimed in phone calls that Gilbert Balter "never wanted to live like that" and had asked his grandson to take his life.