My Gift: Myself, A Guide To Excellence in End Of Life Care

For over a decade, a thousand hospice programs have relied on JoAnne Chitwood's My Gift: Myself Medicare approved training program to educate staff and volunteers in providing professional, compassionate care for the terminally ill patient.

Now, the entire training program has been revised and completely refilmed in high definition, packed with amazing stories from front line hospice caregivers and administrators. Sharing their best experiences and advice are volunteers, nurses, physicians, music thanatologists, therapists, administrators, chaplains, and even specialists with therapy animals.

In a dramatic redesign of the entire training concept, My Gift: Myself, A Guide To Excellence in End Of Life Care now has a core training program of 7 DVD's and a core manual that covers all the basic training. Then JoAnne created specialty supplements, manuals, and DVD's that address many facilities and professional caregivers that have not previously had Hospice training available. Now, this excellent hospice training has been extended to long term care facilities, the VA healthcare system, prison hospice programs, physican and chaplain advisors, and even offers approved training for RN's and CNA's to be certified in hospice & palliative care. Karin O'Conner, Volunteer Coordinator for Housecall Providers Hospice in Portland, OR, was so excited about the new concept that she helped coordinate interviews with many Oregon providers. Regarding the new My Gift: Myself, A Guide To Excellence in End Of Life, Karin confirmed that "There's nothing like it on the market today!" The Core Program DVD's and Core Manuals with hospice volunteer supplements are available now, and other specialty materials should be released in 2012. The Core Manual & Volunteer Supplement has been republished as a single manual - with 272 pages of directed information, exercises and skill checks. The new manual is also spiral bound to allow all the pages to open and lay flat for easier access and writing student notes and exercises in the manual. Future specialty materials for formal training will follow the same format as the hospice volunteer programs now available.

The 7 DVD Core Program presents seven comprehensive chapters of training covering:

1. What's It All About? "Concepts in End Of Life Care" where caregivers explore the Hospice concept and learn what end of life care is all about.

2. What Can I Do? "Activities and Interventions" that caregivers can engage in to provide effective comfort and support to their patients and patient families.

3. The Greatest Gift "Learning to Listen With Love" focuses on developing the communication skills that are at the heart of successful support systems.

4. Physical Care "When A Patient Is Dying" desribes what to expect from patients with different diagnoses and how to provide the best final care.

5. Things Of The Spirit "Providing Spiritual Care" coaches caregivers on ways to be sensitive to a dying person's spiritual needs.

6. A Time For Grief "Understanding The Grief Process" looks at one of the most important parts of care of the terminally ill: offering effective and appropriate support for the grieving family. Here caregivers learn how to process their own grief and to understand the grief of others.

7. Caring For You "Focusing on Healthy Self Care" addresses how to prevent burnout by understanding the signs of stress and learning ways to diminish its impact

My Gift: Myself Previews:

- NEW MATERIAL: Check out this great "Director's Cut" commentary about the Power Of MGM - created by some of the video production staff.

- Here are links to pdf files showing representative pages from the Core Manual & Volunteer Supplement, and also the Volunteer Coordinator's Manual. These manuals can also be accessed from the new Power Of MGM page.

- Below is a Video preview of the newly refilmed Core Program training:

JoAnne Chitwood- Author and main presenter for the new My Gift: Myself, A Guide To Excellence In End Of Life Care DVD's and training manuals. JoAnne is an accomplished film producer, seminar speaker, counselor, and as a registered nurse; has practiced in the Hospice field for over 20 years. An author of fifteen books, she has also had over sixty articles published in popular magazines and periodicals. JoAnne has a genuine talent for presenting material in an entertaining and easy to follow style. Her deep professional and personal knowledge of the grief process and Hospice enables her to bring out the best in each Hospice volunteer, caregiver, or program coordinator. Her DVD's are warm, personally compelling, and will touch your viewer's hearts.

 

Videography and Post Production work for the revised My Gift: Myself series was accomplished by Rick Syfert at Hi-Res Productions. rick2
Rick has over 30 years experience in marketing and film making with a special emphasis on animation and creative graphics.

You may contact Rick at: (541) 954-8794 or visit www.hiresproductions.com


 

Each chapter in the My Gift: Myself, A Guide To Excellence In End Of Life Care Core Manual and corresponding DVD is divided into segments that cover the Four Basic Learning Styles with a final assessment.

#1 "Just the Facts Please" provides factual information appealing to the left side of the brain where logical thought occurs.

#2 "At the Heart of the Matter" engages the right side of the brain, addressing emotions and stimulating volunteers to look inward to find their own heart’s responses to the material.

#3 "Putting it Into Practice" is more "hands on" in nature, providing practical exercises and real-life scenarios for the volunteer.

#4 "A Closer Look" focuses closely on one important aspect of the chapter topic, appealing to the part of the brain that thrives on patterns.

A final "Skill Check" assesses progress and “cements” the learning. This open book test is a guide to summarizing chapter contents.

“I appreciate your teaching/training videos very much! They have been a cost saver for our organization. They have simplified my work greatly and they are done incredibly well! JoAnne, you make the training very personable and informative. You have a way of making us all feel like we're sitting down with you conversing just with you. Thanks for doing a super job at equipping many persons to be angels of mercy to walk alongside those who are facing their last days here on this earth. What an incredible job we are blessed to be part of!

~Marilyn Bontrager~
Volunteer Coordinator,
Care at Home Services,
Goshen IN.

“Great Job on the training materials! The information is timely and thorough. I used the marketing suggestions this time and they worked great…
My Gift: Myself gives future volunteers the opportunity to train on their own time rather than just once a year ..... It's made recruiting volunteers much easier.”

~Candace Bowman~
Volunteer Coordinator,
Hospice of Central Montana Medical Center