Great question Ethan! This is one we see come up frequently in our discussion thread. You're welcome to look at back on some of the recent and older ones. The subject lines are well used such that topics are fairly clear and thereby easy to spot. Here are my replies about my own current organization's practice, as well as comments on my understanding of many others.
- Do you have a newsletter for your bereavement department? Yes. We create our own and have an internal media and printing service which we partner with to produce these. In prior hospices I have worked in, we created our own in house as well and really enjoyed doing so as we controlled the content and tone, which allowed us to create something we felt was best fit to our community. Overall I gather the creation of a program's own newsletter sounds very common across the states.
- How often do you publish your newsletter? Our newsletter is a set series that changes periodically if we wish to update the tone or content but generally stays within the same themes. We provide this newsletter to fit the 13 mo period we follow bereaved.
- Do you send the newsletter by email or snail mail? Snail. Many programs do snail and many do both.
- What is your objective when you write your email? We do not offer any by email at this time.
- Do you try to include articles from third party publications or national experts in bereavement? No
- What advice would you give to starting a newsletter? To sample and compare many examples from other hospices or series that are for purchase; to consider what might be most reflective of the your community; to involve others in its development that are important voices and roles within your organization and potentially within your community; and to engage bereaved who have received your services in the past and found them helpful to also share their thoughts and feedback on what did/did not work for them/what they may wish to see or would have appreciated.
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Joelle Osterhaus, MSW, LCSW, LICSW, ACHP-SW
Hospice, Palliative Care and Continuing Care Psychosocial Services Manager
Kaiser Permanente Northwest
Continuing Care Services
2701 NW Vaughn St., Ste. 140
Portland, OR 97210-5344
Main Office Reception: (503) 499-5200
Cell Phone: (503) 312-0819
Clinical Fax: (503) 499-5535
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-08-2021 09:10
From: Ethan McCarthy
Subject: Bereavement Newsletter
Any suggestions from my fellow bereavement professionals would be great. Thank you.
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Ethan McCarthy
Bereavement Assistant
Supportive Care Services
Visiting Nurse Association
Southcoast Health
Fairhaven, MA
Original Message:
Sent: 04-02-2021 11:15
From: Ethan McCarthy
Subject: Bereavement Newsletter
Good morning! Let me introduce myself. My name is Ethan McCarthy and I am the Bereavement Assistant for Southcoast VNA in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. This is my first post here in this group and thank for the opportunity to belong.
My coordinator and I have been in discussion about starting a Bereavement newsletter for our clients after the death of a patient and we are looking for best practices. We are looking to publish our newsletter quarterly and each newsletter will showcase a general theme with some reoccurring topics with invited contributors. Right now we are just in our thinking, organizing mode and nothing is set in stone. Anyway, I have the following questions for those who publish bereavement newsletters or have in the past.
- Do you have a newsletter for your bereavement department?
- How often do you publish your newsletter?
- Do you send the newsletter by email or snail mail?
- What is your objective when you write your email?
- Do you try to include articles from third party publications or national experts in bereavement?
- What advice would you give to starting a newsletter?
Thank you in advance for your help. I look forward to reading your responses.
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Ethan McCarthy
Bereavement Assistant
Southcoast VNA
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