News Release
For Immediate Release

Marquette University Nursing Professor to Author
Journeys Project DVD Training Guide For Hospice Groups

July 20, 2005, Milwaukee, Wis. – Recognizing a need to strengthen the healthcare community’s response to grief, a leading authority on hospice nursing practices at the Marquette University College of Nursing Institute for End of Life Care Education is partnering with Vision4Media to develop a guide for using the company’s award-winning DVD Journeys Project: Journey of Loss...Discovery of Hope™ as part of a bereavement counseling program.

The training guide will be written for social workers, bereavement group coordinators and other hospice care providers by Dr. Sarah A. Wilson, the institute’s director and a respected researcher and authority on hospice nursing.  It will feature her recommendations for using the DVD as a tool in grief counseling or bereavement groups and will be available free to hospice organizations ordering three or more of the Journeys Project DVD.

Wilson is donating her time to develop the guide in response to growing concerns within the hospice community about the need for meaningful grief support to surviving families.  The guide also will address ways to use the DVD in “anticipatory grief” situations when families face the impending death of a loved one. 

“Grief is a normal response to loss that can manifest in both emotional and physical symptoms.  Yet so often, surviving family members feel like something is wrong with them and wonder if what they are experiencing is normal,” Wilson said. 

“One reason the Journeys Project DVD is a valuable therapeutic tool is that the survivors featured in the production discuss their personal losses so openly and spontaneously that viewers can easily identify with their experiences.  The work takes a respectful and refined approach to a difficult subject.  The guide will help therapists and bereavement group leaders take advantage of the growth experiences on the DVD in their bereavement support programs,” she said.

The international Gold Telly award winning Journeys Project: Journey of Loss...Discovery of Hope Special Edition DVD, and its earlier Silver Telly winning VHS volume, feature survivors describing how they dealt with the death of a spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling or a close friend.  It also includes interviews with bereavement therapists and counselors offering insights into the healing process and prominent Catholic, Jewish and Protestant clergy sharing their perspectives on spiritual issues related to death and dying, such as the belief in an afterlife and the survivors' relationship to God.

“The spiritual aspect of the DVD is very comforting because it addresses important issues like being angry at God and the aspects of hope behind beliefs about an afterlife.  It helps people look beyond death to glimpse something greater,” Dr. Wilson said.

Both the DVD and video were directed and edited by Vision4Media co-founder David C. Bojorquez and produced by Bojorquez and the company’s other co-founder Keith G. Myers.  Their interest in the subject grew out of personal losses that led to an awareness of the need for a dignified and respectful look at grief. 

Wilson has spent the last seventeen years researching issues related to cultural and social issues on death and dying.  She has published extensively on the subject, including articles in The American Journal of Alzheimer’s Care and Related Disorders, Geriatric Nursing, Journal of Advanced Nursing and The Journal of Palliative Medicine.  The Marquette University Institute for End of Life Education prepares nurses for the hospice mission of contributing to the dignity and wellbeing of patients and their families, and develops community outreach programs.

The training guide is expected to be released in September 2005 and will be shipped free with hospice orders for three or more of the DVD Journeys Project: Journey of Loss...Discovery of Hope.  The guide also will be available to hospice bereavement coordinators ordering less than three DVDs for a small fee to cover production costs.

About the Companies

Vision4Media, Inc. (www.Vision4Media.com) is a media company that creates works to enrich society and was founded by two spiritually-aware executives with headquarters in Brea, Calif.  David C. Bojorquez is an award-winning film director and Keith G. Myers a business executive with over thirty years senior management experience in large organizations. Journeys Project™ is the Vision4Media™ entity that produces original content media focusing on topics of significance to society, such as the grief support DVD and video Journeys Project: Journey of Loss...Discovery of Hope (www.JourneysProject.com). Vision4Media also operates David Productions (www.davidproductions.com) which produces customized, leading-edge DVDs, broadband Web sites, broadcast television, films and commercials for cause-related organizations and people-oriented corporations.  

The Marquette University College of Nursing is committed to changing the face of end of life care through its Institute for End of Life Education. Reflecting Marquette’s Catholic, Jesuit values, the Institute focuses on education and research for health care professionals and the community at large to increase awareness of the hospice principles and to enhance the quality of end-of-life care in America. It seeks to treat the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of patients and families holistically and affirms the dignity of both life and death. 

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Contact:  Linda Marcus, APR, Astra Communications, 714-974-6356, lmarcus@astra.cc
                       
Note to Editors: For artwork, contact Linda Marcus, 714-974-6356, lmarcus@astra.cc