Library Newsletter January 2010

Thérèse Brady Library News

Vol 1 Is 1 – J anu a ry 2010 .................................................1 Short Title of Article Three.......2 Short NEW SLETTER

In this issue; •

Welcome note

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Library news

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Resource update

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Conference dates

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Article reviews

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Book review

Welcome Note itle of Article Four 3 Welcome to the inagural newsletter of the Irish Hospice Foundation’s Thérèse Brady Library. The newsletter will go out monthly to all Hospice Foundation and affiliated staff and students, our external and professional library members and associated members. Feel free to pass the newsletter on to colleagues or associates or to contact laura.rooneyferris@hospice­foundation.ie to subscribe. The newsletter will update on changes in the library, new resources, new library acquisitions and overviews of a selection of the months research articles and press coverage in the areas of bereavement, palliative and end­of­life care. Other regular features include; book reviews, conference updates and resource spotlights.

Library news New titles list Click to view new titles for January

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Library access for external members

The library now operates a research and professional membership scheme for members of the public working or researching in the areas of bereavement, hospice or end­of­life care. Annual membership can be obtained for a €20 dontation and entitles users to full access to the library collection to borrow books and access resources. If you have friends or work collegues who might be interested in access to the library contact laura.rooneyferris@hospice­foundation.ie

Open access to the library and limited book borrowing facilities are also available to the bereaved as part of our bereavement support function.

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Save the date!

March 9th – The library will launch a new master leaflet of bereavement resources and bibliotherapy titles. The launch will coincide with library Ireland week. Further details will be available in the February newsletter

Thérèse Brady Library News –Vol. 1 Is. 1 January 2010

Resource Update Throughout February the Library (so by extension you) will have trial access to two academic electronic databases via EBSCO host.

The trial will provide access to both CINAHL full text and EBSCO’S Psychology & Behavioural Science Collection.

Cinahl full text trial access in February

CINAHL or Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature is the most comprehensive database of nursing, allied health and general healthcare literature. It provides full text access to 600 journals dating back to 1981 with abstracts and indexes for 1950 titles and a cumulative total of 2,000,000 records. Some of the titles of interest include; • American journal of hospice & palliative care • Hospice journal • European journal of palliative care • International journal of palliative nursing Click HERE for CINAHL full title lists

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And on the Psychology & behavioural Sciences collection titles include; • Journal of loss & Trauma • Palliative Medicine • The Lancet Click Here for full title lists Access to these databases will be automatic via IP recognition on site but a username and password will be distrubuted for global access. Guides on searching will also be sent out but contact laura.rooneyferris@hospice­foundation.ie if you need help navigating or searching either database.

This is aimed to be the first of a series of database trials through the year. The trials should give you a chance to try out some leading electronic databases, so please use them frequently and pass on any feedback on how useful you find these resources and whether you would like the library to obtain a full subscription.

Conferences and dates for February 4th ­ IAPC annual education and research seminar Conference to be held in Boyne Valley Hotel, Drogheda 4th & 5th –Supporting the bereaved, Irish Hospice foundation Workshop with Dr Susan Delaney (details of all workshops available HERE 24th – Better investment better dying – National Council for Palliative Care, UK

More details of upcoming conferences are available on the Library blog

Bereavememt

Article Reviews

Recent events in Haiti have drawn focus on

Thérèse Brady Library News ­ Vol. 1 Is. 1 January 2010

bereavement issues following natural disaster.

End of life care

The current issue of Death Studies (Vol. 34 Is. 2) features an article titled ‘Predictors of

The Royal College of Physicians released ‘Oral

complicated grief after natural disaster; a

feeding, difficulties and dilemmas; a practical

population study two years after the 2004

guide to care particularly towards the end of life’

south east asian tsunami. The article by

on January 6th. The report which provides ethical

Kristensen, Weisaeth & Heir is a cross

as well as clinical guidelines on feeding

sectional study of Norwegians bereaved by the

difficulties prompted debate on artificial feeding

Tsunami aiming to identify predicters of

and hydration in dying patients with particular

complicated grief. The article is available

focus on feeding of dementia patients. The full

online via ADEC

report is available from the library.

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Good Grief; Is there a better way to be

The current Volume of International Journal of

publications in

bereaved By Meghan O’ Rourke

Palliative Nursing (Vol. 16 Is 1) features a

bereavement,

This New Yorker article examines the legacy

review article examining communication of

palliative care,

of Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s lecturers and

terminal diagnosis. ‘Truth telling and the

hospice and end of

subsequent publications on death and dying

palliative diagnosis; reflections on truth telling

life care research

out of which the ‘stage theory’ of the

and the management of sensitive information at

bereavement process emerged.

the end of life’ by John Costello indicates there is

O’ Rourke’s article, like current bereavement

still a lack of full and frank disclosure in end of

theory addresses the oversimplification of the

life care.

staged approach to grieving, acknowledging

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that bereavement is rather a more ‘messy’

The development of best practice guidelines in

emotional process.

palliative care is examined in ‘What best practice could be in palliative care; an analysis of

*This article also features a link to a podcast

statements on practice and ethics expressed by

interview with Meghan O’ Rourke on her

main health organizations’ in the open access

personal bereavement journal and our cultural

journal BMC Palliative Care. The article

responses to grieving.

provides an overview of official statements and

current guidelines on palliative care in the interest of developing standard practices.

Reviews An overview of selected articles and

Book review

Thérèse Brady Library News ­Vol. 1 Is. 1 January 2010

Things the grandchildren should know Palliative care for all

By Mark Oliver Everett (2008)

Irish Medical News reported on research by Beaumont hospital’s Department of Psychiatry on the poor quality of palliative care for dementia ‘The flag was flying at half mast and I was thinking about

patients.

The research article ‘Quality of end of life care for

how, everyone was dying and maybe its time, to live…’ For a book

dementia patients during acute hospital admission;

marketed as a rock memoir by virtue of the author’s day job (frontman of

a retrospective study in Ireland’ by Afzal et al

the band the Eels under the pseudonym E) the body count in ‘Things the

published in General Hospital Psychiatry details

grandchildren should know’ is up there with a good war movie. By page

the challenges and shortfall in provision of end of

two you realize the extent to which ‘everyone is dying’ and that the book is

life care for dementia patients.

not so much an invitation into Everett’s rock and roll lifestyle but an

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intimate presentation of personal loss.

This month’s issue of the British Journal of

Everett recounts a detached, unorthodox upbringing; son of the physicist

General Hospital Medicine

Hugh Everett, originator of the many worlds theory of quantum mechanics.

is dedicated to palliative care for non cancer

So distant was Everett senior that when the 19 year old E discovers his

patients. It features articles on heart failure,

lifeless body following a heart attack it is recalled as the only time he has

dementia, respiratory and motor neurone disease

touched his father. Over the course of the next 254 pages, between tales of

and multiple sclerosis as well as an editorial by

his developing musical career Everett details his sister’s battle with

Max Watson on the need to extend palliative care

schizophrenia, culminating in her suicide in 1996. She is followed two

beyond oncology.

years later by his mother whose battle with cancer is touchingly and poignantly shared as is weight and loneliness of E’s position as sole survivor of the Everett family. The continuing tragedy of subsequent deaths of band members and close friends is unrelenting.

However, for a book saturated in loss what is most surprising about ‘Things the grandchildren should know’ is its life affirming outlook.

Everett is a witty narrator with a relaxed, conversational prose style. Even

Compiled by; Laura Rooney Ferris

in the darkest episodes the tone is free of self pity or the ‘book of the week’

Information & Library Manager

platitudes all too common in the literature of loss. ‘Things the

Thérèse Brady Library

grandchildren should know’ is that rarest of memoirs in its lack of ego and

Irish Hospice Foundation

an even rarer still in its frank retelling of tragedy and loss. As says E ‘I'm

Follow us on;

like a cockroach. I just keep going.’ and you will with him all the way to the end.

‘Thing the grandchildren should know’ is available from the library

[ Y o u r C o m p a n y N a m e H e r e ]

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