Press Releases

Yale School of Nursing and CT Governor M. Jodi Rell honor local individuals and groups for delivering care for people with chronic illness and their families

New Haven, CT — February 15, 2006

Blanche Agostinelli, RN, MSN and Dianne S. Davis, RN, MSN, two expert deliverers of care to individuals and family members struggling to cope with the devastation of Alzheimer's disease, were honored for consistent excellence in promoting or delivering care for people with chronic illness and their families. They were presented with Excellence in Caring Awards during the 8th Annual Convocation of the Center for Excellence in Chronic Illness Care which took place on February 14, 2006. Both award recipients are currently Geriatric Case Managers at Yale-New Haven Hospital's Adler Geriatric Assessment Center.

The hospice team members of the Connecticut Department of Correction were also honored for providing end-of-life care in CT state prisons. To address the growing aging population in prisons, in 2001 the Connecticut Department of Correction launched the first hospice and palliative care program in New England for prison inmates after the findings of a 1998 feasibility study found a need for improved end-of-life care in CT state prisons. The study was conducted by a team that included; Nealy Zimmermann, Chair, CT Chapter of the National Prison Hospice Association; Florence S. Wald, Dean Emeritus of Yale University School of Nursing and co-founder of CT Hospice, the first hospice in the United States; and A. Siobhan Thompson, a research administrator at Yale University School of Nursing.

The program is run by interdisciplinary teams consisting of nurses, physicians, social workers, clergy, and correctional officers, and is the first research-based correctional hospice training curriculum in the country. Correctional team members all volunteer for the program and often spend their own free time, off shift and on weekends, to help inmate patients and their families. Team members work together to secure patients' living wills and advanced directives, compile "wish lists" for family visitation, assist with letter writing and burial guidelines, and manage hospice inmate volunteer team support. To date, 21 inmates have died in the Hospice Inmate Volunteer Program. Round-the-clock vigils by inmate hospice volunteers under the leadership of correctional hospice staff were held for every inmate to ensure that they did not die in pain and were not alone in death.

The program operates in two facilities, the Janet S. York Institution in Niantic, CT and the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, CT. Patricia Ottolini, RN, MPA, CCHP, Director of Health and Addiction Services for the Connecticut Department of Correction, oversees the hospice volunteer program and was responsible for its implementation

The CT Department of Corrections hospice team members were also recognized with a citation from Governor M. Jodi Rell. It was presented by Department of Correction Commissioner Theresa C. Lantz and Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner and former Yale School of Nursing researcher Linda Schwartz.

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