“Learn from the Past, Live in the Present, And Create your Future.”
Joel Brown
Empower Your Community
Back in the 1960s, baby boomers changed how everyone gave birth by demanding choices. Today that generation has kicked open the door to end of life conversations using those same determined voices. Some individuals, however, who are not personally involved in our ever-changing healthcare environment, have been left confused and alone. Many community members have realized that they didn’t know what they didn’t know until it was too late.
Kimberly believes in community education. She also believes the only individuals who have the power to change healthcare are within our society, not within the hallways of government. Kimberly provides eye-opening, inspirational presentations to local audiences that motivate action and empower change.
She knows firsthand that when we educate people on how to navigate the healthcare system, they are empowered to demand better care. They learn to seek out end of life choices made available to them, document their wishes and communicate those wishes with loved ones.
Kimberly stands strong on her belief that community members will radically change how we will one day face end of life. As we live each day through the 21st century, each one of us can have a role in changing how we die. By applying a theory similar to that of the baby boomers’ demands during the birthing movement of the 1960s, our communities can and will change our healthcare at the end of life.
Community Presentation Topics
How to Design Your End of Life.
No matter what, a movement starts with an empowered community.
Death by Design
How do I become the designer of my own End of Life
How do I talk to my doctor about my End of Life Wishes
Advance Care Planning
Lessons I Learned from the dying
And other End-of-Life Community Topics
Bridging the Gap…. between the community and medical providers
The medical community learns over 60,000 new words in medical school, nursing school, and while becoming a social worker. There exists much confusion within medical offices and hospital settings, since healthcare professionals speak an entirely different language than the community they serve. This presentation will help bridge the gap between the individual and the medical profession, providing key steps for each party to meet in the middle.
- To teach community members to be their own advocates within an acute setting.
- To teach the medical community to apply common language to daily med-speak taught in training.
- To identify when a third party is required to provide an objective point of view and review the outcomes of each treatment choice. To introduce Palliative Care to community members and other medical professions. When are they needed? How can they be useful? When is it the best time to include a Palliative Care Team?
Reclaiming our Voice at End of Life….Community Presentation
Has America monetized death? When did death become a medical event? I believe it is time to reclaim our end of life from the medical community, since death is a human event. This presentation will provide an overview of how to reclaim our end of life from the medical community. In several studies, it is stated that 80% of individuals wish to die at home with loved ones surrounding them; yet, only 20% do so. Why is that? Throughout history, it is proven that when individuals are facing imminent death, they desire to connect with those who they love most and say goodbye. The first step to solving a problem is recognizing it. This presentation will empower the community to reclaim their role within their own end of life and creating experiences reflecting their lives and desires.
- To examine why America spends 7 times more money during the last 6 months of an individual’s life compared to other countries.
- To review the growing end of life services baby boomers are demanding at the end of life.
- How to become one’s own advocate throughout the medical atmosphere?
- Why is America so resistant to the idea that each of us will die one today? Why don’t we prepare for it?
- How can the individual change their relationship with death?
Becoming Your own Advocate…..Community Presentation
Each of us have a love affair with control in our lives. Yet, we place 100% blame on clinicians, when we or a loved one is/are faced with a serious illness. How do we bridge the gap to meet the clinicians half way, take back control, discover our desires, and learn how to communicate to become part of the medical team that advises us about options, treatment outcomes, and side effects that will affect the quality of life? How does one advocate for oneself? This presentation will empower the individual to take back control from the medical community to become part of the team of providers involved with the treatment plan.
- Learning how to become an advocate within the medical community.
- Introducing innovative ways to support efforts to become an advocate.
- Discussing steps to meet our clinical providers half way.
Facing the Elephant in the Room…Advance Care Planning Presentation…A movement starts with an empowered community
Facing the elephant in the room, this presentation focuses on empowering individuals to ponder, document and have in-depth conversations about desires at the end of life. This presentation will introduce a 3-step process, to be applied when planning for the end of life. Innovative techniques will be introduced to begin the conversation by providing questions to think about prior to documenting wishes. The legal aspect of planning for the end of life will discuss documents to make choices legal. The final stage, communications, will discuss how to inform family, friends, and providers of choices.
- Discussing the importance of planning.
- Learning the steps to make sure end of life choices are followed.
- Discussing the legal documents that will support choices.
- Revealing ways to begin the conversation with family, friends, and providers
Inspirational / Motivational Presentations
Lessons I learned from the dying…Bridging the Gap Book Presentation
Kimberly will read excerpts from her book, Bridging the Gap, while having a conversation with the audience about life lessons learned over 17 years working in the hospice industry. Additionally, Kimberly will talk how these lessons inspired her to change her life, buy an RV, and drive to 49 states in an effort to find connection.
- Discussing the life lessons learned at the bedside of the dying.
- Sharing stories that changed the direction of her life.
- Educating about hospice through storytelling.
Live Well Die Well …A journey to find connection personally and professionally
This inspirational presentation will discuss how the Live Well Die Well Tour evolved, incorporated national sponsors and plans to drive to 49 states over the next 2 years. Kimberly will share personal stories, discoveries, and campfire chats with strangers. Individuals are not afraid to talk about death or dying; they are just looking for permission to have an authentic conversation.
- The goals and objectives of the Live Well Die Well Tour.
- The personal journey behind the scenes.
- The pulse of how Americans feel about death.
The Three Things we have in Common..We are human, we grieve for those we lost, and we will all face death
The one thing we are born to do is to connect with one another. In a world forcing disconnection through technology, it is easy to get sucked into thinking we have nothing in common. Yet, 3 things bridge us: we are humans, we all grieve for those we have lost, and, one day, we will all face the end of life and our own death. How can we recognize that these things that can bring us together and empower us to make changes within the medical system?
We, humans, are the trump card. The only time the medical community changed the way they served the community is when we demanded change. In the 1960’s, women desired to give birth differently. They demanded change for a more personal experience while bringing life into the world. Death is very similar. It is not a medical event, but a human event. How do we use the things we have in common to change how death is experienced in a world pushing for disconnection?
- Back to basics—History could be repeated.
- Empowering a community can demand high touch at the end of life
- Using what connects us to change how the medical community serves us at the end of life.
Following Your Curiosity…Being Brave is Scary
Throughout our lives we are told, “Follow your dreams.” Yet, some do not know what their dreams are. How do we replace this statement with “Follow your curiosity?” Living a life or pushing the limits to live a life less ordinary is scary. Being brave is scary.
This presentation will take you on a journey on our Kimberly, who left a six-figure salary, rented out her house, sold her possessions, and brought an RV, to follow her passion and change how individuals talk about death and dying, one community, one town, and one person at a time. This inspirational talk will empower you to examine your own life, inspiring you to set a plan to follow your own curiosity. Change our thoughts, change your life.
- What do you want from life?
- When you are on your death bed, will you regret “not living?”
- What is your curiosity; how do you implement steps and begin to follow them on a small scale?
Bridging the Gap between Us and Those We Serve
How do we take off our titles and relate to those we serve on a human level? It is time to revisit the fundamental reasons why Dame Cicely Saunders created the modern-day hospice movement – to care for people in an environment where they did not have to conform to a system, but a service that would conform to those facing end of life. We need to rise up, become warriors within our healthcare system by reclaiming death from the medical community in order to provide those we serve exactly what they desire during their final journey. If we can recognize the common factors, we, as healthcare providers, can radically change the way individuals view, talk, and experience death. Because death is not a medical event; it is a HUMAN event.
Audiences include:
- University and College Campuses
- Interfaith Groups and Faith Communities
- Educators
- High Schools
- Corporations
- Palliative and Hospice Organzations
- Hospital & Healthcare Providers