Originally Posted - April 6, 2006

return home

The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast is a healthcare center that deals primarily with end of life and palliative patient care. They offer education, training, information, resource centers, libraries, and workshops, consultations; educational programs, support and training products for service providers, and research information; end of life initiatives. Currently, they also serve as a community resource for the area, and serve as a Regional Center that provides national programs, guidance, and resources for end of life care.

This is the same hospice where Terri Schiavo was put to death by starvation and dehydration. It could be argued that they support terminal sedation. It could be argued that they support hastening death. It could also be argued that they support euthanasia.

This is the very same hospice that Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, once served as chairman of the board of directors.

An educational initiative, focused on the right to die, was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and involves this same hospice.

The funded program is called Rallying Points.

Rallying Points was a Last Acts national program. Rallying Points supported grassroots activists that focused on favorable advertising about quality of care and end of life care. Several state projects received funding from RWJF's Rallying Points program, a $12 million effort.

As the world’s largest foundation focusing on health care issues, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has made end of life care a priority for several years. The RWJF funded the Rallying Points program of Last Acts in support of initiatives of state and local end of life coalitions, including the Nebraska Survey, named the Nebraska Coalition for Compassionate Care (NCCC).

The study is the result of a partnership between NCCC, Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Association, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, through the Rallying Points program of Last Acts Partnership, the national end of life coalition that ceased to exist in 2004. This study draws on the early work of the Missoula Demonstration Project (now the Life’s End Institute) and mirrors the work of AARP of North Carolina in partnership with the Carolinas Center for Hospice and End of Life Care, who provided their similar 2003 study and report as models for use in Nebraska. Nebraska State Senator, Jim Jensen, hosted the official release of this report on January 21, 2004, at the Nebraska State Capitol. http://www.nebrccc.org/end_of_life_survey_report.htm

The Missoula Demonstration Project is a research project to assess the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of community members about quality and end of life, and dying. The project was established in 1996 to run for a 15 year period by Dr. Ira Byock.

The Rallying Points Community action activities consist of a tip sheet for Rallying Points Coalitions. Activists were encouraged to conduct workshops, set up displays in libraries, display information in non-threatening ways, and alert federal and state representatives to the North Carolina survey. Activists were encouraged to also provide information on the survey results and to refer to the state specific data presented in the Last Acts’ report, Means to A Better End: A Report on Dying in America Today.

Rallying Points Regional Resource Center for the East/Southeast Region is The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, in Largo, Florida. According to the Hospice, they were selected as a Regional Center by RWJF’s Last Acts campaign for the Rallying Points initiative. This is the same hospice where Terri Schiavo was housed during the final years of her life, and was starved and dehydrated to death. www.thehospice.org.

States assisted by The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast include Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington DC.

Since The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast is now a Regional Resource Center, they provide educational products and training services to the above states. They also offer a supplement to the PBS series, On Our Own Terms: Moyer’s on Dying. Furthermore, according to Karen Orloff Kaplan, who was previously national program director for the now defunct Last Acts, Rallying Points was created to provide assistance at the local level.

In September 2003, the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in Largo, Florida, was honored for Public Education Programs; for Patients and Families titled Caregiving a Life’s End, and Concerning End of Life Issues by National Council of Hospice and Palliative Professionals (NCHPP) titled Rallying Points Regional Resource Center.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided grants to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) as well. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizations collaborate with national, state and local levels to improve end of life care.

Donald Schumacher, NHPCO president and CEO, stated, “NHPCO is honored to have been chosen to build on the work begun by the Last Acts and Rallying Points programs and is excited to continue efforts to help consumers be active participants in the care they receive when confronting a life-limiting illness.”

Funding hospice organizations and their programs is common practice and often appears benign on the surface. But how do we know we have selected a legitimate care facility? We don’t. We would like to believe all Hospice centers are legitimate and do not serve to assist suicide and euthanasia. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

NHPCO, in turn, works with the Rallying Points Regional Resource Centers, such as Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, and who were educated by Myra Christopher’s Bioethics Center programs. The NHPCO web site contains a coalition letter which states in part, “We are extremely fortunate to be working with the Rallying Points Regional Resource Centers as they transition their amazing work to NHPCO.”

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization also contains a Five Wishes link on their web site. Five Wishes is an advanced directive project that was supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and was involved in a series of five community forums in Florida on a variety of aging and end of life issues. Topics discussed included aging, Medicaid, long term care insurance and finances, and barriers to death and dying. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/032906AssistedSuicide.html

Other Regional Centers are in Kansas City, Missouri and Missoula, Montana. A National Resource Center has also been established in Washington DC.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funded a multi year study of 9,000 critically ill patients at five major medical centers in the United States. The 1995 findings of the $28 million project, Study to Understand Prognosis and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatment (SUPPORT), was motivated by a sense that treatment and care provided to people who are dying overemphasize heroic, high tech innovations at the expense of caring and comforting. Last Acts, a right to die group no longer in existence, was involved with this study. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/032906AssistedSuicide.html

With all the dramatic changes occurring within the Hospice and healthcare industry that are advocated by right to die proponents, we all need assurance that we will not be admitted or transferred into a Hospice facility for the sole purpose of ending up the victim of assisted suicide and euthanasia. 4-06-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette