Hospice in Prison Part 1: An interview with Michele DiTomas and Keith Knauf
episode
GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast
53 min
3 speakers
3 chapters
transcribed 4 days ago
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What is the purpose and background of the hospice unit at California Medical Facility?
Welcome to the Jerry Powell podcast. This is Eric Rodera. This is Alex Smith. And Alex, this is not my office.
This is not your office. No. Where are we? We are in the California Medical Facility and we will ask our guest about that. Yes. What this is. Where are we? Our guest today, we're delighted to welcome Michelle DeThomas, who is a friend. I've known Michelle a long time since the joint medical program. Shout out to the UC Berkeley UCSF Joint Medical Program. And she is now Chief Medical Executive. For the palliative care initiative with the California Correctional Health Care Services. Did I say get that close?
That was that was perfect. That
was perfect. Great. Welcome to the JerryPel podcast, Michelle.
Thank you for having me.
And you're also the medical director of the hospice unit here.
Yep. Through a series of events. I started working um as a consultant to the Department of Corrections in around two thousand and six. And I was assigned to the California Medical Facility. And we have a seventeen bed inpatient hospice that serves men from throughout the state of California who choose to have comfort focused treatment at the end of their lives. And it's an incredibly compelling place to work. Um lots Lots of closure, reconciliation, forgiveness, um, peer supports. It's a real moment of humanity um inside of a of a justice system that sometimes doesn't always have that touch.
So I I'm excited because we're gonna be interviewing Michelle, but we're also gonna be interviewing others, including inmate volunteers here, chaplains. We got a lot to talk about in this podcast about hospice and prison. But before we do, we always start off with a song request. You got a song request for Alex.
I do. Bonnie Rait uh was inspired by the work that our uh peer volunteers do in this space and um it's called Down the Hall.
Mm-hmm. So Bonnie Rait sang a song about hospice in prison?
Yeah, so there was a in May of twenty eighteen, there was a an article by Sulaika Jawad in the New York Times magazine. And it she they spent about two weeks in our hospice with us, um, learning about the work that's done. And what she found most compelling was the work of the peer the peer workers. And so sh the article focuses on the work of these, you know, three men who were uh mostly gang involved and did something really bad when they were young. And through the journey of rehabilitation, they became, you know, very different people. And they wanted to give back. And these jobs in our hospice are one of the few places that you can have really meaningful work within the incarcerated setting. So the story of these men giving back and and getting to
Uh uh. um a new place in their lives was very compelling. And so Bonnie read about that story and it inspired her to write this song. Mm-hmm.
And Wanna Grammy.
And well the album wanna the album Wan a Grammy. But how
long ago was this? Um a few years back. A few years? Yeah. Because that that article wasn't too long ago. It must have been a few years, right?
The article was twenty eighteen, but I think Bonnie read the article more recently. And uh the Grammy was just a couple months ago. Oh a couple of months
ago. Wow. Okay. Here's a little bit.
Had the flu in the prison infirmary, my last day I looked up and saw. A man wheeled around the corner and down a skin and bones it's all. I asked the nurse where he was going she said hospice down the hall. He probably won't be in there long. Any day we'll get the call. I asked if they led family in, she said not really at the end. Truth is a lot don't have someone no friends or next of kin. The thought of those guys going out alone hit me somewhere deep. I asked could I go sit with him for some comfort or relief? Next thing you know I'm on the ward doing things you can't believe. Like shavin' Julio's bony head, crack him up when he washes feet.
That was lovely. I'm gonna just start off if we can go a little bit back in time and you can just tell me How did this all start?
Yeah. So um, you know, this really this this space uh grew out of the HIV epidemic.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
What is the purpose and background of the hospice unit at California Medical Facility?
0:00–20:59
2
How did the hospice program originate during the AIDS epidemic and evolve over time?
20:59–34:46
3
What are the eligibility criteria and interdisciplinary team structure for hospice patients?
34:46–53:22
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast
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