Pennsylvania hospice trains prison staff
A Pennsylvania hospice counselor combines her passion for hospice work and interest in justice by becoming a hospice instructor for prison staff.
With training, prison guards and employees find compassion for dying inmates, even when it goes against their personal prejudices about prisoners’ "deserve," says Phyllis Taylor, RN, an educator and counselor with the Hospice of the Delaware Valley in Plymouth Meeting, PA.
Taylor recalls how one guard became angry during her hospice orientation class.
"She said, Why should these folks get special treatment? My brother died several years ago, and we didn’t get any help.’"
"You’re right to be angry that your family didn’t have hospice care," Taylor replied. "They should have had support. Somebody should have told you about hospice."
She suggested the guard receive bereavement help from hospice, just as the inmates should receive hospice care.
"I was trying to take her anger and reframe it in a way that identified her anger in a way that I think was valid," Taylor says. "I think it’s terrible that she and her family did not have access to hospice, but that doesn’t mean that inmates shouldn’t have hospice too."
Genesis of a program
Taylor serves as a consultant and educator for the Philadelphia Prison System, which has more than 6,000 inmates.
Although the system is a county facility and not a state or federal penitentiary, inmates can be held there for up to 23 months after sentencing, she explains.
Taylor approached local prison officials after she heard of an inmate who was dying from AIDS. When she explained hospice care, the prison officials seemed interested. But the next time Taylor called them, she learned the dying prisoner had been transferred from the hospital back to the general prison population.
"That’s when I began to say, Wouldn’t it be good to be able to have some form of a hospice program in the prison?’" Taylor recalls. The warden agreed and asked her to teach every correctional officer in one building.
In the past year, she has held one half-hour inservices for correctional officers, and conducted two-hour inservices for officers assigned to the medical unit. She also has trained social workers, clergy, psychiatric workers, AIDS workers, and even union representatives for some of the staff.
In all, Taylor has conducted 24 hours of educational meetings and formal instruction. She’s also spent her own time developing training materials.
Taylor handed out a one-page hospice guide to correctional officers and a longer guide to staff at the two-hour inservice. (See hospice care hand-out, inserted in this issue.)
"We want people to really understand this," she says. "My desire is that people know there is a real need in the jail system for hospice care."
Families play a role
The system pays the hospice a limited amount for Taylor’s training and consulting time, but there is no money for other hospice services, she adds. "Also, I am a nurse, counselor, and part of the bereavement team."
Now that the staff has been trained, the next step for the Philadelphia Prison System is to admit inmates into hospice care. Taylor plans to meet with the inmate block captains to discuss hospice care with them as well. Then, she’ll help the staff get the program off the ground and later serve as a consultant.
Taylor suggests other hospice staff interested in becoming involved in prison work begin by contacting the warden. If the prison’s health care is provided through a contract with a health care system, they would have to contact those officials as well.
One place to start might be the formation of a bereavement support group for inmates’ families, Taylor suggests. Even these groups would require cooperation with prison officials because the hospice would need to obtain permission from inmates to contact their families.
Hospice prison work may cost hospices money, but it is worth the cost and effort, Taylor says.
"I go back to the basic premise of hospice as I knew it 25 years ago when money was a major concern because there was no financing," she adds. "I think it’s the right thing to do."
Sources
• John A. Anderson, correctional superintendent, Broward Correctional Institution, P.O. Box 848540, Pembroke Pines, FL 33084. Telephone: (954) 434-0050, ext. 122.
• Pat Byrnes, administrative assistant, Hospice Care of Broward County Inc., 309 S.E. 18th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316-2886. Telephone: (954) 467-7423.
• Elizabeth Craig, executive director, National Prison Hospice Association, P.O. Box 3769, Boulder, CO 80307. Telephone: (303) 543-8913.
• Michael Freytag, MA, LPC, NCC, executive director, Hospice of Jackson, 915 Airport Road, Jackson, MI 49202. Telephone: (517) 783-2648.
• Paul Guoan, Catholic priest, Hospice of Jackson, 915 Airport Road, Jackson, MI 49202. Phone: (517) 783-2648.
• Judith A. Stanley, MS, CCHP, director of accreditation, National Commission on Correctional Health Care, 1300 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL 60657-3240. Telephone: (773) 880-1460. E-mail: [email protected].
• Phyllis Taylor, RN, educator/counselor, Hospice of the Delaware Valley, 527 Plymouth Road, Suite 417, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462. Telephone: (610) 941-6700.
• Elizabeth Vogt, MA, human services program director, Department of Corrections, Broward Correctional Institution, P.O. Box 848540, Pembroke Pines, FL 33084. Telephone: (954) 434-0050, ext. 355.
• Anne Watts, RN, patient family care coordinator and nursing supervisor, Hospice Care of Broward County, Inc., 309 S.E. 18th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316-2886. Telephone: (954) 467-7423.
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