Literature Review

Living with grief caused by your child’s death Bonner County Daily Bee, Sandpoint, ID; by Kathy Hubbard; 5/14/25 “The challenge for many people is to speak about their feelings after the death of a child,” Tami Feyen, RN, manager of Bonner Community Hospice said. “If you haven’t gone through it, you can’t imagine what it’s like.” We were talking about the “tree” with the heart-shaped “leaves” that “grows” in the Children’s Healing Garden. This memorial, designed by artist Betty Gardner was installed in 2019 with the idea that people who had lost a child would have a comforting place to come to remember their loved one(s).

I held my wife's hand as she died. It was the most painful moment in my life, but also the greatest gift.Yahoo!Life; by Juan Cruz, Jr.; 4/13/25

Video: Holes and Wholeness - Mother's Day 2025, Finding peace in the pieces, Wholeness in the holes Composing Life Out of Loss; by Joy Berger; 2018, updated 5/8/25Holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. They’re supposed to bring celebration, fun, food, gifts, rituals, and rich meanings. But, when our loved one is seriously ill, or has died, these same days of joy can become … holes of grief. It's already hard enough, but with the holidays,  we fear that emotions will flood us, that memories will trigger us, like ...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

What grieving moms want for Mother's Day The Compassionate Friends - Supporting Family After a Child Dies; posted on 5/10/17, retrieved from the internet 5/8/25 Acknowledgement is what grieving mother’s want most for Mother’s Day, suggests a survey by wwwthecomfortcompany.net a website that specializes in meaningful sympathy gifts. The online survey asked, “What can others do to ease your pain on Mother’s Day?” Over 80 percent of the 200 respondents answered, “Recognize that I am a mother.” ... In response to the survey result, The Comfort Company has issued a list of ten simple ways to reach out to a grieving mother on this difficult holiday. 

CAREGIVING: For 27 years, I had minimal contact with my abusive mother. Then she moved in with me. HuffPost; by Carole Brodsky; 1/20/25  ... Living with my mom was the last thing I ever thought I’d be doing as an adult. Perhaps I accepted her back into my life because there were no other options available. Perhaps it was because I was the daughter of someone who in today’s vernacular would be called a “tiger mom,” and I’d been taught caring for an aging parent was what “good daughters” did.  ... As a child, my mother was abusive.  ... [Now, as] Mom’s verbal skills declined, we had to use our eyes, guts and hearts to discern the needs of a person whose tether to this world was fraying before our eyes. ... My partner has a saying: I always forgive, but I never forget. I have unequivocally forgiven my mother for everything. I have tried, with varying degrees of success, to let the vestiges of her abuse die with her and not invade the lives of my children, grandchildren and now, great-grandchildren. The work on forgiving myself will continue for the rest of my life.

When they don’t recognize you anymore: Dementia study looks at loved ones’ responses Penn Live - Nation & World News; by Paula Span, KFF Health News; 5/4/25 It happened more than a decade ago, but the moment remains with her. Sara Stewart was talking at the dining room table with her mother, Barbara Cole, 86 at the time, in Bar Harbor, Maine. Stewart, then 59, a lawyer, was making one of her extended visits from out of state. ... “She said to me: ‘Now, where is it we know each other from? Was it from school?’” her daughter and firstborn recalled. “I felt like I’d been kicked.” Stewart remembers thinking, “In the natural course of things, you were supposed to die before me. But you were never supposed to forget who I am.” Later, alone, she wept.

Family caregiving for older persons with dementia at end-of-life: A comprehensive overviewInternational Perspectives on Family Caregiving; Cynthia A. Hovland; 4/25 Family caregiving for older persons with dementia at the end of life is a perplexing, challenging, and growing concern across the United States and other developing countries. This overview looks at these epidemiological forecasts, scope, and impact of dementia on the family and caregiver. Using a bio-psycho-social theoretical framework helps to understand identified problems and issues for the caregiver and implications for the older adult with dementia. Caregiver issues include the burdens as well as positive aspects of this role, but the unknown trajectory of dementia poses significant challenges. Caregivers' responses are impacted by their individual resilience and supports, and recommendations for approaches, strategies, and interventions for caregivers and health professionals are provided.

Think you know what nursing research looks like? Think again Boise State News, Boise, ID; 4/30/25 “Research” doesn’t just mean generating new discoveries through experimentation. Boise State supports Boyer’s model of scholarship, which expands the definition of research and creative activity to include applying and integrating knowledge into other settings, as well as teaching it. ... [An] interdisciplinary team is working to improve hospice and palliative care for refugees. ... Clinicians and refugees often do not share common cultures, languages or communication norms, so [Kate] Doyon has been building a community advisory board to create a communication guide. They’re working with stakeholders–including refugees and providers–to develop prompts that will enhance the care refugees receive, starting on the level of communication. Ornelas said the refugees they interviewed “gave us a lot of insight on different cultures and how we can go about and make prompts.” The prompts are short phrases to remind the healthcare team of best ways to interact with refugees and productively approach conversations.

[Australia] New cuddle bed installed at Harden Hospital to support end-of-life care Forbes Advocate; 4/20/25 Harden Hospital’s acute ward has received a new ‘cuddle bed’ thanks to the Murrumburrah-Harden Hospital Auxiliary branch, which recently funded the purchase to support patients and their families during palliative care. ... The cuddle bed was a staff-suggested purchase, designed to provide comfort and dignity in end-of-life situations. The bed can electronically expand from a standard single to a double size at the push of a button. It allows family members to lie beside their loved one during their final moments, eliminating the need to sit upright in a chair or attempt to share a single bed. 

7 signs at home care is needed for someone with dementia VeryWell Health; by Christopher Bergland; 4/25/25 ... At-home dementia care can look different for every family. Some people live alone and may get by with periodic check-ins from professionals in the dementia care community throughout the week. Others might require daily visits from Alzheimer's home care dementia services. Sometimes, a paid caregiver comes to the house daily, or unpaid loved ones provide 24/7 in-home care.

As the ‘Silver Tsunami’ hits the Flathead Valley, dementia diagnoses are rising while caregivers reach a breaking point Flathead Beacon, Kalispell, MT; by Maggie Dresser; 3/23/25 ... As baby boomers age and Americans live longer than previous generations, the elderly population will continue to grow and overwhelm many local resources, which includes nursing homes and memory care facilities. ... According to 2020 Census data, the national demographic of people ages 65 and over grew nearly five times faster than the total population over the 100-year period stretching from 1920 to 2020, and the population segment has recently reached 55.8 million. But Montana’s senior citizen population is disproportionately higher than many other states, ranking No. 6 overall, with 19.7% of its population considered geriatric, according to 2020 Census data.  Of this population, 9.8% of individuals in Montana suffer from Alzheimer’s.Editor's note: Click here for the national 2024 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures - Special Report: Mapping a Better Future for Dementia Care Navigation.

How Lower Cape Fear LifeCare built its Memory Care affiliate Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 4/22/25 Lower Cape Fear LifeCare built from the ground up a program dedicated to serving dementia patients. A growing number of operators have developed programs tailored to patients with specific diagnoses, providing specialized care tailored to their specific needs. Examples include dementia, heart failure and other cardiac conditions, as well as diseases of the lungs. At Lower Cape Fear LifeCare, the program started small and rapidly expanded. The North Carolina-based hospice provider six years ago launched a support group for dementia caregivers, called Memory Partners. This over time bloomed into a full-fledged dementia services subsidiary called LifeCare Memory Partners, Evan Dressel, director of strategy, development and innovation at Lower Cape Fear LifeCare said at the Hospice News ELEVATE conference in Orlando, Florida.

Closing the hospice care coverage gap in Florida Naples Daily News, Naples, FL; by Nichole Goble; 4/20/25 For too many Floridians living with serious illness, accessing high-quality hospice care remains a challenge. Families are left struggling to find the support they need, and patients are forced to navigate complex medical decisions without adequate guidance. In Florida, this gap is especially pronounced, leaving thousands without the specialized care that could improve their quality of life. Caregiver Action Network (CAN) is dedicated to advocating for caregivers and their loved ones. ... Living in a rural area, bringing in hospice support to the home ensured that family could more easily be with him on a continuous basis. ... This year, CAN has engaged over 65,000 caregivers across the state of Florida to better understand their priorities when it comes to hospice care and the benefits of integrated health systems, with over 28,000 of those being in Hendry, Lee, Pinellas, Glades, and connected counties.