Interview with Christine Miller, “How to choose the right care community for your loved one or yourself,” on November 8th at 8AM Pacific. Blogtalkradio.com/kindethics

Interview with Christine Miller, “How to choose the right care community for your loved one or yourself,” on November 8th at 8AM Pacific. Blogtalkradio.com/kindethics

Christine Miller is an RN with over 20 years of experience. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Grandview College in Des Moines, Iowa. She served six years as an officer in the Army Nurse Corps. She recently completed a year-long training in health and life coaching from Hilton Johnston and Health Coach Training University.

Christine is the owner and founder of Hearts and Homes for Seniors. She uses her experience in home care nursing and discharge planning to help seniors and their families find the right senior living solution. If that means moving out of their current home, Christine helps the senior and their family find a compatible community where the client needs are met, but most importantly, where the client feels at home.

Hearts and Homes for Seniors is a local company providing individualized guidance and coaching in selecting Assisted Living or Alzheimer’s/ Dementia care. A Senior Relocation Advisor takes a personal interest in your satisfaction and accompanies you on tours of communities that are pre-screened to meet your criteria

Her website is: http://heartsandhomesforseniors.com

You can contact her at: 303-519-1889
HeartsandHomesRadioShow@www.blogtalkradio.com/christine-miller

Viki will be presenting with POLST Coalition in L.A. on 10/28/10

The Coalition for Compassionate Care of California is a statewide partnership of more than 95 regional and statewide organizations dedicated to the advancement of palliative medicine and end-of-life care in California. Their mission is to promote high-quality, compassionate end-of-life care for all Californians.

POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) is a form that states what kind of medical treatment patients want toward the end of their lives. Printed on bright pink paper, and signed by both a doctor and patient, POLST helps give seriously ill patients more control over their end-of-life care.

Membership is open to any organization or individual that wants to support high-quality, compassionate end-of-life care for all Californians.
Membership Benefits include:
* Connection to a statewide, multi-disciplinary effort to ensure quality end-of-life care
* Access to cutting-edge ideas, tools and resources
* Timely legislative updates
* Networking at the annual CCCC membership conference
* CCCC’s monthly email newsletter
* Listing as a member on the CCCC website
* Discounted registration fees for selected CCCC programs, events and materials
* Being part of a larger public policy voice to impact end-of-life issues

Have a kind and respectful day.

2010 Memory Walk – Los Angeles, CA November 7, 2010

Viki will be exhibiting at the 2010 Memory Walk – Los Angeles benefiting the Alzheimer’s Association on Sunday, November 7, 2010.

The Memory Walk is a 5K Walk at Century Park, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA starting at 7am PST. When you register for the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk®, you’re joining a nationwide community of thousands of people who are standing up and participating in the fight against this devastating disease.

Memory Walk is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. Since 1989, Memory Walk has raised more than $300 million for the cause.

All Memory Walk donations benefit the Alzheimer’s Association, the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. The mission of the Alzheimer’s Association is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health.

They provide services to those affected by Alzheimer’s; advocate for policy change and research funding; and advance research toward prevention, brain health treatment and a cure. Their organization has offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and chapter affiliates nationwide that serve the needs of those living with Alzheimer’s every day. Their vision is a world without Alzheimer’s disease.

Have a kind and respectful day.

Interview with Pamilla DeLeon-Lewis, “Empowering Women with Breast Cancer,” on Oct. 27, 1PM Pacific

Interview with Pamilla DeLeon-Lewis, “Empowering Women with Breast Cancer,” on Oct. 27, 1PM Pacific – blogtalkradio.com/kindethics

This will be an amazing interview with an amazing woman. She is one of my heroes.

http://www.pamilladeleon-lewis.com

Pamilla is the CEO/Founder of the Caribbean American Breast Cancer Organization (CabcoUSA) and she wears several hats. This quintessential woman is the daughter of the late great award winning calypso legend, Rafael deLeon aka The Roaring Lion. She is a breast cancer survivor and an award winning poet and author, and the ‘Woman of the Year 2006;’ she is on the Board of Advisors at SUNY Downstate Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, and is dedicating her efforts to empower the Caribbean and African American Community in its fight against cancer.Through her confrontational poetry, her songwriting, her motivational speaking, and through media she boldly challenges the enemy, by literally laughing at cancer daily. Chuckling Choonks is a Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher affiliated with Dr. Madan Kataria’s School of Laughter Yoga and a Certified Coach Practitioner.
This breast cancer activist is also a Brooklyn Team Leader of the Legislative Ambassador for the American Cancer Society.

She has two books available. Her recent book, “Side Effects – The Untold Story,” is available on Amazon. For more information go to www.pamilladeleonlewis.com. Her award winning Book of the Year- 2005 is a Life-affirming triumph over breast cancer chronicled ” Smiling Thru the Tears: A Breast Cancer Survivor Odyssey” By Pamela deLeon-Lewis

ISBN: 1413770703 PublishAmerica Smiling

Thru the Tears is a collection of over 100 poems documenting Pamela deLeon-Lewis’ journey through, and eventual triumph over, breast cancer. If the cover, which shows a smiling and radiantly healthy-looking young woman is any indication, she’s doing well. Indeed, one is startled to learn, through these poems, that deLeon-Lewis is in her 50s, and a grandmother. The cycle begins with intimations of wrongness as the poet attributes the beginning of her cancer to her father’s death and the stress of 9/1 1 which sent her career as a consultant into disarray. She even dreams of being told she has cancer. Yet, when the news comes in real life, it’s a shocker. She writes in “Dream Becomes Reality”: “I knew there was something wrong; Daily the signs were getting so strong.” The resulting poems confirm and reaffirm her absolute faith in God. Some of them read like prayers or Psalms. A series of wonderfully angry poems shout her defiance in the face of life-threatening illness, as in the lines of “I’ll Stand Tall”: “But I refuse to stoop to you. You can’t conquer me at all.” She refers to the cancer itself as DeMon, a play, one guesses, on “demon” and “The Man,” the oppressor, the thing that’s out to do her in. There are homages to friends, to the “Chemo Squad” and the “Radiation Squad.” Yet while she lauds the help of her squads, she doesn’t spare the reader the agony of her treatment: “I had sores in my mouth; I couldn’t eat. Pains in my legs, my feet, and my hands; I had pains in my eyes, pains in my head. So much pain it was blowing my mind,” (from “I Remember … Part I.”)

There are poems of gratitude for the medical team that helped her, her daughters, her grandchildren, her aunties, her mother, her dead father, her neighbor, her younger daughter’s babysitter, the folks in a cancer support chatroom, Oprah Winfrey (“Ms. Oprah Winfrey is positively the world’s greatest incentive for me”) and even a stranger who smiles at her on the street, and poems. There are poems that remind the reader that the aftermath of even a successful battle against breast cancer is hard. She still has pain, she can’t lift her right arm, and the treatment even damaged her brain. Some poems contemplate what it’s like to have one’s right breast amputated (she used to refer to her breast as “lost”). When we learn that the doctors have found a calcification in her left breast, the suspense is comparable to anything in a murder mystery novel. Our relief when we find out that all is well is thorough. The book ends with a poem by her grandson, Jahlani Andrew Roberts: “I am happy to say she is now Cancer Free!!! Now she has time to hang with me.” Smiling Thru Tears is a triumphant, life-affirming book.

Viki will be presenting at the WRC-NAPGCM Conference on 10/16/10 from 10-11:15am PST in Costa Mesa, CA

Viki will be presenting at the WRC-NAPGCM 20th Annual Conference on 10/16/10 from 10-11:15am PST at The Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA.

The 20th Annual WRC-NAPGCM (Western Region Geriatric Care Management)  “Professionalism & Excellence: Navigating the Course” Conference will be held October 14-17, 2010 in Costa Mesa, CA.  In addition to great networking, many opportunities to visit with exhibitors and dynamic general sessions, they will be offering a total of 15 incredible breakout sessions with clinical, business and legal/ethical sessions offered at each time.

A Geriatric Care Manager is a health and human services professional, such as a gerontologist, nurse, social worker, or counselor, with a specialized body of knowledge and experience related to aging and elder care issues.

A Professional Geriatric Care Manager (PGCM) is a member of the National GCM Association and has committed to adhering to the GCM Pledge of Ethics and Standards of Practice. The PGCM assists older adults and persons with disabilities in attaining their maximum functional potential. The PGCM strives to respect the autonomy of the individual and delivers care coordination and support services with sensitivity to preserve the dignity and respect of each individual. In addition, the PGCM is an experienced guide and resource for families of older adults and others with chronic needs.

Professional Geriatric Care Managers can offer:

Evaluations to identify problems, eligibility for assistance and need for services.
Personalized services specifically to meet the client’s wants and needs, including information referral and placement in facilities. Customized care plans are designed to institute the appropriate services.
Counseling and support to seniors and their families.
Liaison assistance for families at a distance.
Accessibility since many GCM members are available after hours and on weekends.
Continuity of care management to reduce miscommunication, time, stress, and costs to clients.
Monitor the quality of services being delivered by service providers such as the health care system.
Efficiency and flexibility because GCM services are streamlined and client-centered, not complicated by bureaucratic red tape.
Cost control. GCM members strive to reduce inappropriate institutional care and overuse of services. They match the service to the client’s needs and help contain costs. Ongoing monitoring can prevent costly crises and unnecessary hospitalizations.
Quality control. GCM has adopted standards for practice for all its members. In addition, all full members are reviewed for educational and experience requirements prior to acceptance into the Association.
Review of financial, legal, or medical issues and offer referrals to geriatric specialists to avoid future problems and conserve assets.

Have a kind and respectful day.

Viki will be presenting at the American Health Care Association Conference on 10/12/10

Viki will be giving a presentation at the American Health Care Association Conference on October 12, 2010 from 8-10am PST.

As the nation’s largest association of long term and post-acute care providers, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) advocates for quality care and services for frail, elderly and disabled Americans. Compassionate and caring employees provide essential care to one million individuals in our 11,000 not-for-profit and proprietary member facilities.

The ultimate focus is on providing quality care to the nation’s frail, elderly and disabled, who are served by the long term care professionals who comprise AHCA’s membership. These providers believe that the individuals whom they serve are entitled to a supportive environment in which professional and compassionate care is delivered. This belief compels AHCA, its affiliates and member providers to advocate for individuals who – because of social needs, disability, trauma or illness – require services provided in a long term care setting, while also advocating for the continuing vitality of long term care provider community.

AHCA believes this necessitates their commitment to developing necessary and reasonable public policies which balance economic and regulatory principles to support quality care and quality of life, and is dedicated to professionalism and ethical behavior among all who provide long term care.

Have a kind and respectful day.

Pacifica Senior Living in Santa Clarita will be hosting a presentation on caregiving on 10/13/10

Pacifica Senior Living in Santa Clarita will be hosting a presentation on caregiving on 10/13/10 from 7-8pm PST.

Pacifica Senior Living is an independent living, assisted living and memory care community in charming Santa Clarita, California.  They offer a variety of studio and one-bedroom apartments.  Staff are available 24 hours a day.

The Memory Care Staff at Pacifica Senior Living Santa Clarita Newhall is trained to provide the services you may need in a supportive environment.

Viki will be presenting at NASW’s CA Annual Conference on 10/9/10

Viki will be presenting “4 Tools to Help Families Making the Difficult Decisions”  at the National Association of Social Workers CA Annual Conference on 10/9/10 from 9-12pm PST

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with 145,000 members.

NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain standards for the profession, and to advance sound social policies. NASW also contributes to the well-being of individuals, families and communities through its work and advocacy.

NASW was founded in 1955 through a merger of seven social work organizations:

• American Association of Social Workers
• American Association of Medical Social Workers
• American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers
• National Association of School Social Workers
• American Association of Group Workers
• Association for the Study of Community Organization
• Social Work Research Group

Have a kind and respectful day.