On Our Own Terms: Sound Choices for End of Life Care

Buffalo, NY, 2000

WNED and the Center for Hospice & Palliative Care (CHPC) teamed up to advance their community's understanding of end-of-life issues by:

• educating the community about the medical and legal choices available;
  
• providing people with information;
  
• helping individuals discuss their fears and concerns in a thoughtful and productive manner;
  
• advising people on how to find assistance from qualified professionals; and
  
• empowering individuals to self-advocate and make active, informed decisions.

  WNED and CHPC began their outreach and education efforts by holding a series of community awareness sessions and airing a 5-part series of reports on health care decision-making. Listening sessions were then coordinated around those reports and around the PBS series On Our Own Terms. Local churches and senior centers were encouraged to provide transportation for people interested in attending, or hosting, listening sessions, which included facilitated discussion with trained counselors. Further programming included a 1-hour panel discussion on end-of-life issues by experts in palliative care, ethics, spiritual care and law.

  The organizations collaborated to create and distribute more than 5,000 copies of a free Advanced Directives Tool Kit, including advance directives forms, health care proxy cards, stickers for health insurance cards and patient files, and a list of community resources on end-of-life issues. Overwhelmed by requests, the partners reprinted 10,000 copies of the tool kit and held two free community workshops on advance directives.

  WNED said the partnership with CHPC created an intimacy with the subject that it may have otherwise never known, compelling the station to plan at least one in-depth 5-part story each month on an issue affecting the community.

Contact Information

WNED-AM
Jim Ranney, Producer
Tel: 716-845-7040

The Center for Hospice & Palliative Care
Rose Collins, Public Relations Manager
Tel: 716-686-8259

Awards:

WNED Round Two
Best News Series — Associated Press of New York
Bronze Certificate of Merit Excalibur Award
— Buffalo/Niagara Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, awarded to the Center for Hospice & Palliative Care

Additional Funding: Health Care Decision Making at the End of Life received $1,500 from The Joy Family Foundation for reprinting the project's "Advance Directives Guides," which were in high demand.