Nancy Flowers, LCSW, manager of social service from Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care will present a program titled “Communicating Compassion” at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, at the Oak Park Arms retirement community, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

Even though illness, death and dying are universal experiences, the ways people understand and respond to them are shaped by the attitudes and beliefs of their personal history, culture and experiences. A person’s background provides a road map of perception through which the world is understood and interpreted.

While every individual’s response to death and dying is different and should be respected, there are common stages many people experience.

These five stages of grief are:
•    Denial
•    Anger
•    Bargaining
•    Depression
•    Acceptance

While most people experience all of these stages, they do not necessarily happen in order, and can be experienced more than once. For example, a person may have accepted the death of a loved one but can slip back into a depressive state if reminded of something specific about that person.

Flowers will explore ways to communicate with others at an intensively meaningful time. Ways of responding to questions about the end of life, death and dying will be addressed. In addition, ways of how to “be present” with a person who is experiencing the dying process will be discussed.

Flowers received a master’s degree in social work from Indiana University. She has more than 30 years of clinical and management experience working with older adults in hospital, home health care, hospice, assisted living, long-term care and municipal settings.
She was a member of the Illinois Department on Aging’s Elder Self-Neglect Steering Committee and the former chair of the Illinois Department on Aging’s Long Term Care Council. She is the past president of the Illinois Association of Long-Term Care Ombudsmen, and she served as one of the governor’s delegates to the White House Conference on Aging in 2005.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, or to reserve a seat, call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.