PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release

October 8, 2004

Locally Made Documentary Wins National Film Contest

Pioneers of Hospice: Changing the Face of Dying, a film documentary produced by the Madison-Deane Initiative with filmmaker Terrance Youk, tied for first prize in the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO) photography, writing and film contest in the category of General End-of-Life Films for Professional Audiences. NHPCO is the premier national organization for end-of-life issues in the United States with a mission to lead and mobilize social change for improved care at the end of life.

Also, Pioneers of Hospice was featured as part of the Vermont Filmmakers Showcase at the 15th Annual Vermont International Film Festival in Burlington. The documentary was shown on Thursday, October 14, 2004 at 1:30 pm at the Firehouse Center for Visual Arts on Church Street (in the Lorraine B. Good room on the second floor.)

This film preserves the legacies of modern hospice and palliative care founders Dame Cicely Saunders, MD, Florence Wald, MN, MS, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, MD and Balfour Mount, MD. Because of the passion and foresight of these four visionaries, end-of-life care has been dramatically transformed around the world. Pioneers of Hospice is filled with rich narratives and anecdotes from Saunders, founder of St. Christopher’s Hospice, England (1967), Wald, founder of the first Hospice in the U.S. (1974), Kubler-Ross, author of the groundbreaking On Death and Dying (1969) and Mount, founder of palliative care in Canada (1974). Pioneers of Hospice is a compelling film with a unique historical and socio-cultural perspective on the emergence of the modern hospice movement.

The Madison-Deane Initiative (MDI), an end-of-life care program of the Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties, focuses on educating the general public and medical professionals about palliative and hospice care.