Weekly radio program deals with hospice’s focus on quality of life

Kirk Baird

Saturday, Feb. 3, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

To Michael Delaney, death is a dirty word. No one, it seems, is willing to talk about it until it's too late.

So he's bringing up the issue himself in the form of a half-hour radio program he hosts, which airs at 8:05 a.m. Saturdays on KNUU 970-AM.

The show focuses specifically on hospice, in particular the Nathan Adelson Hospice, a nonprofit organization that, similar to other hospices in Las Vegas, provides care and support for patients who have been diagnosed with a terminal disease.

"Once someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness are you just supposed to give up? No. You show them how to cope and how to add more life to their every day," said Delaney, who serves as director of public relations for Nathan Adelson Hospice. "We don't want people to give up on life, and hospice helps in the transitional period."

That transitional period includes providing nursing care -- either at the two local Nathan Adelson Hospice facilities, nursing homes, hospitals and even a patient's home -- and medicines, according to a press release, that "enable patients to carry on an alert, pain-free life and to manage other symptoms."

Delaney said there are many questions about hospice: what it is, who's eligible, how much it costs, etc. And in that respect, he said he hopes to provide some answers.

"I've educated myself. I've gone out with nurses and doctors and I know what they do and I hear the questions people ask," he said. "It's easy to come up with topics because I know how many people affect a hospice patient."

But as familiar as he was with the subject, he realized the majority of people aren't.

With a background in radio, including a stint as drive-time anchor at KNUU in 1994, it was while at a lunch with Mort Roberts, senior account executive for the radio station, that the subject of hospice was brought up. During the conversation, as Delaney explained what hospice was, he began to realize he could use radio as a means to educate people about hospice care.

So he approached the board at Nathan Adelson, and once he received approval, he began putting the show together. That was in December.

The first show aired Jan. 6, and focused on the basics of the program. Future shows will discuss other aspects of hospice, including volunteer services and grief counseling.

Delaney said at the end of the program's first 13-week run he would like to have a "documentary-type show" as a wrap-up, in which he will interview a patient and everyone he or she has come in contact with, including nurses, doctors and chaplains, as well as family members.

"I want to make a half-hour single report on the hospice program and what is involved from the patient standpoint," he said.

Since the program is essentially a public service-type show, Delaney has to find a sponsor. He said he recently secured underwriting for another 13 weeks, meaning the show will be at on least through June.

Each show is taped -- usually the Monday before it airs -- so the only contact Delaney has with the listeners is through e-mail, which can be accessed via the website nah.org. Delaney encourages people to write in with questions or potential topics.

For future shows, he said he would like to address more weighty issues, such as end-of-life care, featuring guests to open up "healthy debates."

"We'll have doctors on the show talk about everything from medication to assisted suicide -- the whole nine yards," he said. "Those are the things that people find the most volatile and I want to talk about those as well."

But before he touches those subjects, Delaney said, he wants to continue to discuss the hospice program.

Joyce Dahlen, executive director of Seville Terrace, a Las Vegas assisted-living facility, was a recent guest on the show and said the radio program is a good way to provide information about not only hospice, but how it fits in with other programs, such as assisted living.

"I think it's an advantage to have somebody like Michael Delaney educate people before they are in need of the services," Dahlen said. "It certainly reaches a larger audience than any forum that we might try."

Which is why, Delaney said, he does it.

"I know of no other program like this," he said. "Our goal is to get the word out on hospice."