COVER STORY

Live all the Days of Your Life
VistaCare Hospice
by Sandra Brown Steinsiek
Photos by Geistlight Photography

FEATURES

Native Women in Casinos
by Veronica E. Tiller Ph.D

Directory of Native American Women Attorneys

Live all the Days of Your Life
VistaCare Hospice
By Sandra Brown Steinsiek
Photos by Geistlight Photography

The offices of VistaCare look like many other business offices. A receptionist at a large desk fields phone calls and customers. Staff members bustle from one office to another. A meeting is just starting down the hall. A colorful poster, a bulletin board, and, then, you see something unexpected, a table with brightly burning candles; and beside the candles, a book titled “Hope.”

On closer examination, there are nine candles on the day of my visit. Nine candles in remembrance and celebration of the lives of patients who “passed on today.” A framed poem stands on the table, the last verse reading, “So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us as we remember them.” Definitely not your ordinary office décor.

VistaCare provides hospice care to those on their final journey. In a society where death is still often spoken of in hushed whispers and advanced planning is thought of in terms of legal documents and funeral services, VistaCare openly addresses the subject of dying and offers the hope of a “good death” when the diagnosis is terminal.

Many of us don’t understand the hospice concept, thinking it is only for the final days. The truth is the Medicare hospice benefit (initiated in 1983) requires only the professional opinion of a physician, based on her knowledge and experience, that a patient has a life expectancy of six months or less and the acceptance of the benefit by the patient. Many patients are still active and are encouraged to remain vibrant and mobile for as long as possible. “Sometimes, patients ‘flunk’ hospice, get better, and go on with their lives,” says VistaCare nurse Chantal Sheppard. “If they need to return at a later date, hospice will be there.”

Click here to continue the story >>>

Native Women in Casinos
by Veronica E. Tiller Ph.D
Photos by Norman Johnson Photography

Indian tribal gaming enterprises employ approximately 400,000 people nationally, with less than 2 percent of them in New Mexico. And of the 5,000+ Indian gaming employees in New Mexico, an even dozen have been identified in a national publication as women in upper management positions. Several of those 12 are listed not because of their role in the gaming industry, but because they hold tribal council positions, technically overseeing gaming activities on their reservations.

The women profiled here, however, move easily from the boardrooms of investment banks to the backrooms of casino gaming floors, from witness chairs to presiding chairs, and they bring a wealth of hard-earned expertise to their roles as protectors and managers of one of New Mexico’s most exciting economic success stories.

Click here to Continue the story >>>

Directory of Native American Women Attorneys