The Heart of Hospice Podcast

With honest information and gentle humor, the founders of Before the Casket are teaching us how to plan for more than just funeral arrangements. Hospice nurses Erin Putney and Amy Hensley have designed workshops that educate attendees about hard end of life decisions, empowering them and their decision-makers and making the whole experience easier. Before the Casket also provides education for healthcare professionals, offerin...

In this open and vulnerable interview, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider talks about her caregiving experiences during her dad’s illness and death. Shoshana discovered early on that she wasn’t prepared for the complicated decision making that comes with serious illness caregiving, despite her medical training. Reflecting back at the experience, she talks openly about what she would have done differently. Difficult conversations about t...

End of life option advocate Dan Diaz is sharing the story of his wife Brittany Maynard and her pursuit  of a gentle death. Diagnosed at age 29 with a terminal brain tumor, Brittany chose to move 600 miles to a state that allowed for death with dignity, utilizing Medical Aid in Dying.  In this powerful interview, Dan describes the impact of her life and death on compassionate death choices and legislation.  

Since Brittany’s d...

Hospice nurse Beth Cavenaugh helps to clear up confusion around live discharges from hospice services.  Sometimes people on hospice care improve or stabilize, and no longer meet the criteria to receive care from the hospice agency.  The discharge process can be confusing, and it’s important to know the things that need to happen.  Here are a few highlights from this episode:

• Live discharges are initiated by the hospice ag...

Author and Alzheimer’s caregiver Marianne Scuicco shares her powerful story of caring for her mother and stepdad through dementia diagnosis and end of life. She describes the roller coaster of her caregiving journey, all the ups and downs that her family experienced. After her stepfather was diagnosed with mixed dementia and her mother declined, Marianne and her siblings had to find a balance to ensure they were well cared for...

We’re getting back to the basics of hospice care, sharing information about complaints, when to make them, and what should happen when you do. Hospice Social Worker Lisa Pahl (creator of The Death Deck and End of Life Deck) helps drive this discussion. Here are a few highlights from our discussion: •Patients and/or caregivers have a right to make a complaint.  •There are numerous reasons a complaint might ...

Drs. Barry Jacobs and Julia Mayer join the podcast for a great conversation about bringing your best to caregiving, reminding us that caregivers don’t have to be perfect.  As authors and clinical psychologists, Barry and Julia support family caregivers, guiding them through the messiness of caring for a loved one.  As a married couple, they’ve had lived experience with caring for their parents and in-laws with Alzheimer’s and ...

We’re getting back to the basics of hospice with Hospice Social Worker Lisa Pahl, sharing information about transfers from one hospice agency to another.  It’s really important for patients and their decision makers to know they can transfer to another hospice agency if the care isn’t a good fit.  Hospice team members should be knowledgeable about how transfers work and what needs to be done.  

Here are some things you need t...

Elder law attorney Patrick Cawley is equipping dementia caregivers with the essential tools they need for estate planning, including advance care planning for end of life. Patrick guides family members as they navigate the health care system and complicated ways to pay for long-term care for their loved one. He is a certified dementia care consultant, and host of the Dementia Empowered podcast.  Patrick has lived experience w...

On-call, after hours, 24/7 services - no matter what you call it, hospice care is available to patients and caregivers every hour of every day. Regardless of the day of the week, whether it’s a holiday, or the office is closed, a member of the hospice team is accessible all the time. Some hospice agencies have answering services or triage teams, but the final result of a call is connection with a nurse. If another discipline i...

Blending aromatherapy and sound bathing into the care of dying patients comes naturally to end of life doula and hospice nurse Carrie Oram. Carrie has witnessed deep, relaxing responses from clients as they experience the vibrations of Tibetan sound bowls. Regardless of diagnosis or disease progression, people who are at the end of their lives become more relaxed during treatments with aromatherapy. The benefits are many - cal...

We’re getting back to the basics of hospice, talking about Continuous Care with hospice nurse Gabby Jimenez of The Hospice Heart.  Continuous care can be confusing.  We’re talking about when it’s used, how it works, and where it happens.

Here are some highlights from this episode:             • Continuous Care (CC) is a level of care within the Medicare hospice benefit.  It’s also called Crisis Care. ...

Funeral director Andre Roupp of Roupp Funeral Home believes each person and every family has a story, and he’s sharing all the ways funeral planning makes services personal and meaningful.  When advance care planning doesn’t include funeral planning, there can be fallout that makes the family’s grief journey more difficult.  Here are some highlights from Andre’s interview:

• Pre-planning a funeral can ease the im...

We’re getting back to the basics of hospice care with Social Worker Lisa Pahl to talk about respite care and how it works. Respite care is part of the care that hospice agencies provide but the details about it can be confusing. Here are a few things you should know about respite care:

• Respite care offers 5 days of care for a hospice patient to allow the caregiver...

Christy Byrne Yates of Alz Authors has experienced all the unique challenges of sandwich caregiving.  Caring for both of her parents with neurodegenerative diseases (dementia and Alzheimer’s disease) while she raised young kids taught her lessons she now shares with other caregivers. In this open and honest conversation, Christy shares the good times and the struggles of her caregiving experience.  Christy is a Licensed Educat...

We’re getting back to the basics of hospice care with Hospice Social Worker Lisa Pahl to talk about who’s on the hospice team and what each person brings to the care of patients and caregivers.  This episode focuses on the core members of the hospice interdisciplinary team (doctor, nurse, social worker, and chaplain) as well as hospice aides (Certified Nurse Assistants) and hospice volunteers.  Each person on...

Carrie Aalberts (AKA the Dementia Darling) supports dementia caregivers with her heart and soul, and a whole lot of strength. With a Master of Science specializing in Gerontology and over a decade of hands-on experience in various care settings, Carrie has established herself as a leading voice in dementia education and support. As the founder of Dementia Darling, she has cultivated an online community of more than 63,000 foll...

It’s National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025!  This episode features clips from some of our favorite guests, highlighting wisdom and thoughts about advance care planning for the end of life.  You’ll hear some of the brightest and best voices working in the end of life care industry talk about managing hard conversations about dying and death, funeral planning, and choosing a proxy or medical power of attorney who will speak for...

We’re getting back to the basics of hospice - talking about starting hospice care, and what you can expect from a hospice admission.  Hospice nurse Beth Cavenaugh helps to navigate this topic.  There are a lot of moving parts that compose the admission to hospice care.

Here are some of the main things you should know about hospice admissions:

• The admission process includes assessment visits from the hospice nurse, socia...