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Facilities Create Fake Bus Stops for Patients with Dementia
Around the world, memory care providers explore fake bus stops as dementia aidsHow can memory care facilities calm people with dementia and reorient them to their surroundings while keeping them from wandering off? They set up a fake bus stop. Staff at the Benrath Senior Center nursing home in Duesseldorf, Germany discovered the success of this approach after building a fake bus stop for their residents. Individuals…
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Revolutionary Technology Aims to Preserve Organs for Transplant
Restoring cellular function in deceased pigs holds promiseResearchers are hopeful that a new device may help to maintain viability of organs for transplant after a donor dies. A team at Yale School of Medicine conducted experiments on pigs undergoing cardiac arrest with a device called OrganEx. The machine takes over the function of the heart and lungs much like the machines used…
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“How Do I Say Goodbye”
A child’s fear of losing a parentIn his 2022 song “How Do I Say Goodbye,” singer-songwriter Dean Lewis wrestles with what it means to have a parent die. The subject material is autobiographical and intensely personal for Lewis, who wrote on Instagram that his father was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and given a 25% chance of surviving the…
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My Sister Died During COVID Lockdown
Three years later, I finally have hope of going to visit her graveThis is Judy’s story as told by Irena Kaci. Our Opening Our Hearts stories are based on people’s real-life experiences. By sharing these experiences publicly, we hope to help our readers feel less alone in their grief and, ultimately, to aid them in their healing process. In this story, Judy tells the story of her…
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Our Monthly Tip: Create an Easy, Beautiful DIY Memorial Table Floral Arrangement
Make the memorial table as special as your loved oneOur Monthly Tip: A memorial table, or memory table, is a special space at a celebration of life. You can display photos of your loved one, showcase items that were dear to them, or decorate it to match your loved one’s personality. You can also easily bring light and color to the space by creating…
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Zachari Logan: Remembrance
An art exhibition reflecting on the healing potential of griefThe power of loss is a featured theme in a unique art exhibition, entitled “Zachari Logan: Remembrance.” The varied display of human drawings, decaying flowers and other artistic life-cycle representations was organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. The celebration of the natural world in its changing forms of death and decay invites…
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10 Quotes on Disenfranchised Grief
From Victor Frankl to Audre Lorde, luminaries examine the grief that isn’t seenWhat happens to grief that isn’t given the space to exist? The term “disenfranchised grief,” coined by Dr. Ken Doka, refers to the various kinds of grief that aren’t socially recognized, accepted or supported. Also known as unacknowledged grief, this might include the death of an illicit lover, an ex-spouse, or a beloved pet. Loss…
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Maggie’s Cancer Centers: Why Architecture Matters in Healthcare (Interview)
An interview with Ann-Louise Ward, the Chief Operating Officer of Maggie’s, a nonprofit providing holistic cancer care based in the UKWhat happens when an artist is confronted with a problem? Often, the artists look for creative ways to deal with the issue. When writer and garden designer Maggie Keswick Jencks was confronted with a cancer diagnosis in the early 1990s, she quickly realized the impact of being in healthcare centers so often. The dull,…
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“Stay True”
A memoir of loss in young adulthoodThe central event in “Stay True” is the death of Hsu’s close college friend, Kenneth Ishida, during a carjacking. But Hsu doesn’t delve into the event until a little over halfway through the book. Instead, the first half of the book focuses on Hsu’s personal development in his early life as an Asian American born…
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