Hospice: finally happening in Michigan prisons!

Hospice was on my mind a lot in the early 2000s. Number one, my wife Marcia had been a certified hospice nurse for 2 decades. Number two, my full-time job was leading and running HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS, and there were numerous shameful stories about death and dying. 

I felt the need for genuine hospice programs in our state prisons and wanted to do something about it. 

I hosted a town meeting on the topic in Grand Haven with a panel of experts. I then went a step further by conferring with Hospice of Michigan. I and HOM representatives made a presentation to the top brass at the Michigan Department of Corrections. We felt it was an offer for help that the state could not reject. We were wrong. We were told that the prison system’s hospice-type program called CHOICES was more than adequate (it wasn’t!). That’s an acronym: It stands for Choose, Health Options, Initiate Care, and Educate Self. The message to our team was clear: thanks but no, thanks. 

I provide all of this background to inform you that finally there’s some good news! 

I recently learned that a small hospice program has been started in Michigan by a California agency called HUMANE. The Humane Prison Hospice Project was founded in 2017 and works to transform end-of-life care in prisons. It trains incarcerated individuals as peer caregivers and compassionate companions to provide palliative, grief, and hospice support to their aging and terminally ill cellmates. That’s what I’m talking about! 

HUMANE has chosen to expand into Michigan and has been quietly working for the past couple of years to establish legitimate hospice programs in the MDOC’s Duane L. Waters Health Center in Jackson, as well as in the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater. Lakeland has a section not unlike a nursing home for aged and ailing men. 

Tenley Mogk, a public health specialist and hospice nurse serving as the Michigan Regional Program Coordinator for HUMANE tells me that she is working with Hospice of Michigan in implementing peer-led prison hospice and palliative care aide programs in both of these facilities. 

HUMANE’s in-house film maker made a documentary about a veteran dying in the Iowa State Penitentiary and the peers who cared for him. After viewing this video you’ll better understand our desire for a hospice program in Michigan prisons: Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall---https://www.prisonterminal.com/ 

It may be a small start, but it’s finally happening!  

Praise God!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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