[News Boquete] March Boquete Health and Hospice Newsletter

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Table of Contents Blood Drive - March 6 March General Meeting Caregiver Skills CPR 2021 Announcement Help Needed Education Team has a Request Being Prepared in Boquete for Life and Death New Volunteers The next General Meeting Policies PSA - How to Register for the Vaccine Tree of Life Update Blood Drive  March 6, 2021 The first blood drive held in over a year was a success!   THANKS go to: Our valuable Blood Donors.  We collected 52 pints of blood! The Blood Bank staff from Hospital Regional who efficiently registered, tested, interviewed and then withdrew the blood – all following the MINSA guidelines. Our BHH Volunteers and Panamanian nurses who worked the event – Joann S., Cat V., Noemi M, Laurie C., Carmen R., Marjorie S., Edith M., Maria Isabel B. and Elisneth L. Our Corporate Donors and Supporters – Piero with Milky Way Creamery, and Melissa Chong, our landlord for our storage units at the Alto Dorado stores. Our Matching Fund Donors – who pledged $ for each pint collected.  With their generosity, BHH received $1,400 to continue our work for the Boquete Community. Start to finish, the entire procedure for a blood donor took about 40 minutes.  It was smooth and well-executed.   The next blood drive is scheduled for June 12.  Please consider supporting it by donating blood or being a Matching Fund donor. Note:  Anyone who donated on March 6 will be eligible to donate again.  March General Meeting On March 10 a General Meeting was held that combined an in-person meeting with a ZOOM meeting.  For the in-person meeting, all of the MINSA guidelines were followed:  We had a step-in tray to clean feet, took temperatures, had alcohol gel available and maintained social distancing.  Chris M. was kind enough to handle the ZOOM portion.  This allowed those who were comfortable being in small groups as well as those who preferred to avoid groups to participate in the meeting. Interested in Improving  Your Caregiver Skills? Join the Contemplative Care Summit, a free on-line event.  Wonderful teachers will be presenting topics that concern us all (unless you do not believe we are all going to die). This amazing one-time event focuses on the profound personal work we can all do to enhance our caregiver skills and lessen our fear and anxieties about our own and our loved one's transitions. Pre-recorded talks and guided meditations range from 20-40 minutes each. Each day includes approximately three hours of content. You are welcome to view as many or as few of the presentations as you'd like!  32 highly qualified presenters address and define a contemplative approach to life and death through talks, practices, and conversation. Understanding this material can be a great aid to hospice workers and caregivers. Continued discussions about this important material with family and friends will be of benefit to many.   Check It Out!  A Free Contemplative Care Summit March 25th-March 29th Free Only on These Days Click Here to visit the site. CPR 2021 Announcement Starting up again soon CPR 2021 When: April 14th, 2021, 2:30-3:30 pm (after the BHHF General Meeting) Where: Animales Event Center – The Ruby McKenzie Clinic Following Minsa's guidelines: masks, social distancing, hand and foot sanitizing, and temperature check. Details: Since there are only 4 mannequins and 4 training AEDs, we can only have 4 participants (students). Each person will have their own mannequin and AED. This is an abbreviated training session, even more abbreviated by Covid precautions. It will include one-man CPR, hands-on only CPR (chest compressions), use of the AED and Demonstration only of Heimlich Maneuver. At this time, the CPR Review Course is open only to BHHF members. Register quickly as again there are only 4 spots available. A waiting/cancellation list will be started. If all goes well, we plan on having this class after each BHHF General Meeting each month. Looking forward to seeing you, Linda Archer/CPR Coordinator rlaarcher@sbcglobal.net WhatsApp: 6482-6442 Help Needed: Merl Will-Wallace has asked to be relieved as Team Leader for the Respiratory Team.  The Team is loaded with really great people who are willing to do the locker check out and in, delivery and pick up.  What is desperately needed is someone who: Will maintain the records of which patient has which piece of respiratory equipment and when it was loaned out and returned. Keep watch on the WhatsApp group to make sure that any requests are not missed. Report monthly on Respiratory Team activities. Help with inventory. Coordinate purchasing of needed equipment and supplies. Preferably the new Team Leader will have some experience dealing with respiratory issues and be organized. If you can help us out, please contact Merl Will-Wallace to discuss further merl@counselingfortransition.com Education Team has a Request Dr. Rod Gottula has agreed to give a 10-minute presentation at every General Meeting, but he needs your help.  He would like suggestions for topics. The reason for this is that: 1. Hospice in Boquete is quite different than hospice in the US and the needs are likely to be quite different. 2. He is used to presenting to health care providers, and he knows what their interests are, but is not sure what topics are important to the volunteers at Boquete Hospice.  3.  Covid certainly has changed the nature of what Boquete Hospice can do. However, it looks like there is light at the end of the tunnel to getting back to normal operations.  It would be nice to do educational programs that address things getting back to normal. 4.  It is typical for those of us that work in hospice to run into difficult or uncomfortable situations.  These may not happen very often but can be made more comfortable with a little knowledge. Please think about this and send your ideas to Liz Bolt at lizbethann5492@gmail.com.  If Dr. Rod is willing to do all this work, the least we can do is let him know what interests us. BHH will present a seminar on Being Prepared in Boquete for Life and Death on April 21st at the Animales Bldg. from 11:00-12:30. The Guide is required for your attendance and is available now at the Tapout Market and at Mailboxes Etc. for a $10 donation.   Guides will be available for sale at the door.  Unless something changes with MINSA protocols, attendance will be limited and registrations in advance will be taken. Further details to follow.  Sign Up for the Class New Volunteers A two-hour training session focusing on confidentiality, communication skills and the history of Boquete Health and Hospice will be held on April 5th, from 1 – 2:30.   New volunteers who participate will be provisional members of the organization.  They will receive the benefits of full membership upon completion of the full three-day training that (hopefully) will be held in September.  To sign up or for further questions, please contact Beverly Stearns at  bevspirit@yahoo.com The Next General Meeting  Wednesday, April 14th – IN PERSON ONLY   An email was sent out to our members to learn how the organization can re-energize them.  One of the responses was to have in-person meetings again.  The Next General meeting will be only in-person.   To maintain the proper social distancing, there is a limit of 40 attendees.  Please contact Lesley to make your reservation.    lesleyahughes@gmail.com.  The CPR class will follow the meeting, starting at 2:30.  See above for further details on that training session Over the past year there have been questions about WHY Boquete Health and Hospice was doing things in a certain way.  The policies of the organization have now been posted on our website.  There is a link at the bottom of the home page or you can go to the "More" page to read them or download a PDF version.  The policies will be updated as needed.   View BHH Policies

Covid 19 Vaccines in Panama Use the first link below only if you have never registered.  Use the second link only after you are notified by MINSA of your appointment.  That link is to verify you will be there. Use your E-cedula to register.  If you don't have an E-cedula, use your passport number.If you are having trouble registering, there are a few glitches to get around. 1 If you have registered previously, it will not let you try to register again. 2 When it asks you to click on your district, you might not find Boquete. Instead you will find GAP. That is Boquete. 3 When trying to register your birth date, you do not have to click 1,000 times to get to it. Look in the upper left corner for the year 2021 (it is dim). Click on that, and a list of years you can scroll through will come up. Phase 2 of vaccination, which includes adults over 60 years of age, will begin March 4. (In Panama City) To sign up for the vaccine go to this link (only if you have not registered): vacunas.panamasolidario.gob.pa/vacunas_menu/ This link has been updated to allow those people who do not have cedulas to sign up. You will see these three options, choose the one best suits your current stay in Panama. Make sure you fill out the documents as accurately as possible. You must have your legal identification document with you when you go get your vaccine. If you do not have a cedula this would most likely be your passport and your pensionado card. Once you are registered and the National Government announces that they are in the circuit in which you reside, you must go to this other link:  vacunas.panamasolidario.gob.pa/verificate and verify you to know the date, time and the vaccination center that corresponds to you. Boquete, Dolega, and Gualaca are in circuit 4-5. About the Tree of Life The tree was created to honor our donors and volunteers.  The roots are volunteers, the trunk is the council, the leaves are people who have donated $100 or more.  The two color leaves are people who have donated for two years.  The flowers are business sponsors who donate $100 or more every year.  The Lilies are new.  They are memorials to people who have passed.  Family or friends have donated $200 or more to honor them.  Add your leaf or flower or Lily.  Click the button to make our tree grow. Thank you. Donate Click Here to Enlarge Tree Many Thanks to Our Donors Laurie & Kelly Collier Susan & Price Peterson Lucie Conner & James McCallum Dave & Erin Ross John & Babbie Earle Welthy & Paul Myers John Ferguson & Craig Gatrel Carmen & Luis Botero  Peter Sterling & Sally Zigmond Ruby McKenzie Willeke & Hubert Pena Milky Way Creamery Melissa Chong Kathy McKay Karen Bergstrom Chris and Lorraine McCall Sheila and Carl Strunk Trish and Brian Christofferson Linda and Doug Avery The Canton Family in Memory of Betty Collier

Our Mission Our mission is to provide palliative care for the terminally ill in order that they may experience death with dignity and limited pain; to inform and promote community health; and, to support people with health and wellness needs by providing information, equipment and volunteer services.   To Make a Donation  BHHF functions with donations provided by the community. If you are interested in supporting the work we do, please make a donation. To make a financial contribution by check or cash contact Merl Will-Wallace,our treasurer,at dharma49@icloud.com to arrange a time and place to pick up your donation. You can also click here to make an online Paypal donation. For more information visit our website: http://www.boquetehealth.org We also have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/boqueteheartshandsandhelp/?ref=bookmarks  Please Like our page and share the contents with your family and friends.   Confidentiality All patient information shared with any Boquete Health and Hospice volunteer is kept in the strictest confidence. To Contact Us   Hospice/Health:  (507) 6781-9250 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday,  9am to 1pm Saturday and Sunday    Please!  Blood Donor Program:  WhatApp (507)-6590-2000 or call (507)-6781-9250 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday,  9am to 1pm Saturday and Sunday, Please. Email:  info@boquetehealth.org   Freely send this to anyone, use any part. Our mailing address is: info@boquetehealth.org

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