Projects and Initiatives

Highlights of Kokua Mau's 2010 Activities

VISION AND MISSION

In 2010 we have been involved with an extensive strategic planning process to expand Kokua's Mau's vision and mission to reflect our growth in the last ten years.

Kokua Mau's vision is a community where:
the people of Hawaii are treated with dignity, compassion and love throughout their lives.

To make that vision a reality, Kokua Mau's mission is:
to weave a lei of caregiving and support so that the people of Hawaii facing serious illness can live in the place of their choice, with relief of pain and suffering and according to their values, beliefs and traditions.

This past year has seen a lot of activity for Kokua Mau.  The highlights include:

POLST
Kokua Mau has become the central repository for information and forms about POLST (Physicians Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment).

Information geared at both providers and the public can be found and/or downloaded from our website. Kokua Mau coordinates speakers about POLST across the state and is currently coordinating trainings on neighbor islands in collaboration with the hospices.  This travel is made possible by a grant from the HMSA Foundation.

IMPRESS (Improving Professional Education, Sustaining Support) and Care Project.
The IMPRESS project worked with 5 long-term care facilities on Oahu to improve palliative and end-of-life care educating staff though 6 hour-long workshops and working with administration to implement policy and program changes.

Positive changes were seen in the facilities especially with the implementation of POLST and in pain management. Full results are still being compiled and will be available in early 2011. We arelooking forward to expanding this project in the coming years. This program was made possible with generous support by the Hawai‘i Chamber of Commerce Public Health Fund.

KOKUA MAU'S OUTREACH ACROSS THE PACIFIC
Kokua Mau has completed its Palliative Care Curriculum for the United States Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI).

A collaborative effort by many Kokua Mau members the curriculum focuses on the basics of palliative care, taking into consideration the different resource levels of the islands. Palliative care is especially important in the USAPI as people have few treatment options and present late with their disease.  Family and community is very strong and care for loved ones is already being provided so it is hoped that with training people can relieve the suffering and increase people's quality of life.

The implementation of the extensive curriculum is combined with workshops and trainings that already took place in the Republic of Palau and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. This important and exciting groundbreaking work is made possible in collaboration with the Pacific CEED program at the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine. Implementation of the program is scheduled for 2011 in Pohnpei and Kosrae and being considered in Guam and American Samoa.

EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS
In March 2010 Shirley Otis-Green, a nationally known clinical social worker and Senior Research Specialist in Nursing Research and Education at the City of Hope held a well attended Kokua Mau workshop hosted at JABSOM.

Her talk Integrating Spirituality into Palliative Care Palliative Care focused on their consensus project for developing spiritual care in palliative care, recognizing spirituality is often neglected in healthcare, despite its importance to people.  Her second talk: Building a Strong Palliative Care Team: Lessons Learned from the ACE Project (Advocating for Clinical Excellence) presented a hands-on, cutting-edge advocacy and training program for an interdisciplinary educational approach to palliative care. A recent meeting with Shirley had inspired a group here in Hawaii to work on Spiritual Care in Palliative Care.

Janette Sargeant-Hamill has offered 4 workshops this year to help families tell their stories.  These workshops entitled: Your Family; Your History, will continue in 2011. Click here for details.

OUR WEBSITE & e-NEWSLETTER
Our constantly updated website is our interface with the public, that provides access to information 24/7 including in the wee hours of the morning, when people seeking help cannot just pick up the phone and call somebody. A monthly e-newsletter provides a quick overview of events, publications, conferences and news, local and national, about palliative care and hospice.

 

 

Highlights of Kokua Mau's 2009 Activities

This past year has seen a lot of activity for Kokua Mau.  The highlights include:

1. POLST  
Passage and implementation of POLST (Physicians Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment) legislation which will improve patients' ability to have their wishes for end-of-life care honored.  This is considered best practice nationally and the POLST team has done a great job implementing this groundbreaking legislation. Kokua Mau's website is the central repository for official forms and information and has been recognized nationally for our work.

2.  IMPRESS (Improving Professional Education, Sustaining Support) and Care Project
The IMPRESS project is working with 5 long-term care facilities on Oahu to improve palliative and end-of-life care by educating staff though 6 hour-long workshops and working with administration to implement policy and program changes. We hope this program becomes a model for future trainings in other care facilities across the State and is made possible with generous support by the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce and the Hawaii Community Foundation.

3.  OUTREACH ACROSS THE PACIFIC
Trainings for US Associated Pacific Island Jurisdictions (USPI) on palliative care. 

Kokua Mau has provided expertise and speakers from our network in training cancer control leaders around the Pacific including in April a very successful 2.5 day training in Honolulu - Caring the Pacific Way.  
 
Implementing palliative care or end-of-life programs, often for the first time, was addressed community-wide with trainings for health care professionals to policy makers in Palau and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.  The success of these workshops lead to other jurisdictions requesting trainings as well and we look forward to future collaborations in 2010.  This important and exciting groundbreaking work is made possible in collaboration with the Pacific CEED program at the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine.

4.  KOKUA MAU WEBSITE, NEWSLETTER & EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS
Providing statewide education and information through the new and improved, constantly updated website is our interface with the public. A monthly newsletter provides a quick in-depth overview. We also strive to offer educational opportunities and intend to offer more in the new year.  Our most recent co-sponsorship with the Queen's Medical Center brought nationally renowned Teepa Snow to Hawai'i to teach caregivers to deal with dementia in loved ones.   

 

Kokua Mau collaborates with Hawaii's Comprehensive Cancer Control Program

Kokua Mau is pleased to be collaborating with HCCCP.  We are conducting a survey of collaboration in other states between the CCCP and hospice and palliative care organizations.  We will be compiling the responses for a report that can be used by other states to find creative and effective ways of working together on this important aspect of the cancer care continuum.

If you are from a CCCP, you can access the survey monkey survey here and thank you for your help. 

Click Here to take survey

 - Kokua Mau awarded 2 grants in February 2009 -

Improving Professional Education, Sustaining Support (IMPRESS) and Care Project for work in Long Term Care Facilities

 
The Hawai‘i Chamber of Commerce has awarded Kokua Mau a grant to improve palliative care capacity in long term care facilities through tailored educational trainings and developing supportive networks. The IMPRESS and Care Project addresses an important gap in the current healthcare system: a shortage of beds in long term care facilities. According to the Long Term Care Association, the problem could be addressed by building the capacity of staff to provide quality palliative care to residents: The goals of the project are to prevent hospital readmissions, decrease hospital stays, and improve quality treatment and care of people living with serious or chronic illnesses.
 
Kokua Mau launched the project in July 2009 in six O‘ahu based facilities to develop and deliver tailored courses and materials and evaluate the program for replicability to other venues.  
 
If you would like to help with these efforts, please contact jkoijane@kokuamau.org

To download the one page sheet about IMPRESS, please click here

To apply for the IMPRESS project please download the RFP

 

Climbing Higher: Organizational Capacity Building Grant

The Hawai‘i Community Foundation has awarded Kokua Mau an Organizational Capacity Building grant. The Climbing Higher grant will allow Kokua Mau to expand and strengthen the scope of our work and help us to achieve our mission that all people in Hawai‘i will receive good end-of-life care. 
 

The grant has three parts:

  1. Build Strategic Relationships. Through a survey of stakeholder needs and interests, Kokua Mau will better understand our constituents. This will allow Kokua Mau to provide improved programs and services and increase its membership base.
  2. Resource Development. In order to better understand and cater to the educational needs of our constituents, Kokua Mau will research and develop relevant resources. This might provide new revenue for Kokua Mau.
  3. Evaluation and Impact. We need to develop methods to measure the clinical and non-clinical impact of our work. 
 
Because Kokua Mau is an umbrella organization for organizations and individuals invested in hospice, the impact of these grants will be felt throughout the state. The ultimate effect will be increased healthcare capacity throughout the community, improved care for people living with serious illness and their loved ones, more effective options to better utilize scarce resources and a true continuum of care from birth through death in Hawai‘i.