LMHPCO Inmate Hospice Volunteer Conference 2006

            Warden Burl Cain hosted 114 Inmates and 15 Correctional Officers from 7 different Louisiana prison facilities who attended the 2006 LMHPCO Hospice Volunteer Inmate Conference at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, LA, September 18-22, 2006.  The week-long training provided participants with 24 classroom hours of inmate hospice volunteer training and professional continuing educational credit for correctional nurses and social workers.  The Conference focused on understanding the hospice philosophy, concepts of death and dying, interpersonal communications, communication with the dying, pain and symptom management, the psychosocial and spiritual dynamics of the dying, understanding the bereavement process, delivering care and comfort at the end-of-life, as well as advance directives and strategies for better end-of-life care in the correctional setting. 

 Conference presenters were: Carol Evans, LCSW; Ronda Herzog, LCSW; Pat Kelley, RN, CHPN; Susan Nelson, MD; Mark Kantrow, MD; and Jamey Boudreaux, MSW, M. Div.  Funding for the Conference was made possible through donations made to the LMHPCO Prison Hospice Project which seeks to promote the continued quality development of end-of-life hospice care in state correctional facilities located throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. 

Currently, hospice is incorporated into the institutional correctional models at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, LA; Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St Gabriel, LA and Washington Correctional Institute in Angie, LA.  Four additional facilities (Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, LA; David Wade Correctional Center in Homer, LA; Allen Correctional Center in Kinder, LA; and Correctional Officers and staff from Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St Gabriel, LA) participated in this year’s Conference .