News Article About Hospice Volunteer and Author Frances Shani Parker

This article was published by WWJ Newsradio Detroit:


Local Volunteer and Writer Seeks to Spread the Truth About Hospice

Anne Osmer Reporting

Detroiter Frances Shani Parker didn’t plan on becoming a hospice volunteer, but despite a self-described “lack of interest in the medical field,” that’s what ended up happening.

Parker’s work as Cass Corridor school principal kept her more than busy when a friend, Jake, became sick with AIDS more than ten years ago. Parker helped shepherd her friend from life into death, aiding with his direct care and assisting his sister with the details of dying that, Parker reminds us, so many of us ignore until it’s too late.

She then found herself in another, similar situation, helping another person to die.

“I was wondering why people were coming into my life like this,” said Parker.
She decided it wasn’t simply coincidence, that helping people at their last hours was something she was meant to do. She then ran into a friend who was a hospice volunteer, and after talking with her, Parker decided to commit to the 15-hour training to become a certified hospice volunteer herself.

Since that time, she’s retired from her school administration job, spent countless hours volunteering in hospice programs at Detroit nursing homes, and written a book, Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes.

Of hospice, Parker says, “Unfortunately, this is one of the last taboos that people don’t want to talk about. My primary reason for writing the book is to help people deal with the situation of dying. We’re all going to die. It’s going to have to be dealt with.”

Parker seeks to dispel some of the myths of hospice. People think it’s an automatic death sentence, she says. This is because terminally ill people are often referred to hospice much later than they should be, she says, and as a result many of them do die shortly after starting hospice care. However, Parker points to research that shows that a person in hospice actually lives an average of 29 days longer than a terminally ill patient with the same condition who does not receive hospice care.

People often distrust hospice care, and “hospice is highly underutilized by minorities,” says Parker. This is not without reason, she says, pointing out that a black, elderly person in Michigan has a higher likelihood of being in a poorer quality nursing home than a white person. Part of Parker’s mission is to educate the minority community, and indeed everyone, about the benefits and blessings of hospice.

Pain management is often better in hospice care than in curative care, says Parker. “There’s more of a conscious effort to work on your quality of life,” she says.

Parker enjoys her hospice work. “People think it’s depressing and it really isn’t at all,” she says. “It’s been very rewarding. I hadn’t planned on writing a book, but people have a need to talk about it. I could see there was a need for more information about hospice.”

Parker also keeps a Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog at http://hospiceandnursinghomes.blogspot.com/

© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.


Frances Shani Parker, Author
"Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes”
“Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog”