Hospice and Funeral Service: How Grief Connects Us
MKJ Marketing • Aug 21, 2017

When a grieving family walks through your funeral home’s doors, they are entering your care. You try to ease their burdens, whether it be by planning a memorable tribute and peaceful reception or by providing comfort and emotional support. MKJ has even worked with funeral homes that go a step further to care for clients, by having formal grief resources, including aftercare programs, support groups, and grief libraries.

Caring for families is a foundational part of the funeral business and it is a foundation we share with hospice care providers. Hospice is the long-term care of a patient with a chronic or severe condition that primarily focuses on pain management. While not always the case, a majority of patients who enter hospice do pass away while in the program, in fact, 44.6% of all deaths in the United States occur in hospice, according to John Hopkins Medicine. In 2011, 1.65 million people were in a hospice program. 83.3% of those patients are 65 or older, and more than 1-in-3 are over 85.

Hospice care is designed for patients that are approaching the end of their lives. In the funeral industry, we mostly deal with grief after a loss, but hospice care handles “anticipatory grief” or grief for a future loss. Different hospice programs counsel families through this process in varying ways, but one hurdle they all must conquer is acceptance. Understandably, it can be very difficult to accept that a loved one is going to pass away. In fact, one exercise many hospice programs use to help families reach acceptance is planning a funeral. Prearranging a service helps the reality of the situation set in, but it also gives patients and families a sense of control. At a time when so many options have been taken from them, patients get to make choices for themselves as they personalize their service. They get to choose how they will be remembered, and families can find peace in the knowledge that all their loved one’s wishes will be honored.

Making funeral arrangements is such a vital component of handling anticipatory grief, which is why it is so important that funeral homes work with local hospice programs. Simply making information about your preplanning services available can help families and patients deal with an approaching loss. You can host preplanning seminars at a local hospice facility with professional MKJ presentations   and branded brochures. For those homes with an MKJ custom website , hospice-specific resources can even be added online, possibly on a preplanning page.

If your home wants to do even more to comfort families in hospice, our “A Guide for Helping Through the Final Stages of Life” is the perfect marketing program. The guide delicately answers all of the difficult questions families have about preparing for a loved one’s passing, including advice on when to enter a hospice program and how to approach the topic of preplanning. When you order these guides   for your home, MKJ will personalize them with your logo and businesses information, to match your branding. We can then work with you to organize an event to introduce the concept and partnership to local hospice leadership to start to form referral relationships.

If you want to learn more about how MKJ can promote preplanning services on social media or website , contact us today.


Share this Post


By Kara Apel 14 Jul, 2023
The MKJ Seminar will be held Nov. 13 and 14 at the Grand Reserve at the Meritage Resort. The luxurious resort is close to several airports, including San Francisco and Oakland, and is located just a few miles from downtown Napa.
By MKJ Marketing 20 Dec, 2022
Nashville, TN — MKJ Marketing Seminars address the most pressing issues facing funeral business owners. During this period of economic uncertainty, owners are experiencing their best business years ever regarding at-need volume, but profits may be lagging. As we await the anticipated recession, operators are uncertain how best to manage their costs and pricing. Innovation is not a point-in-time decision but a mindset and business culture. MKJ’s 2023 Ski Seminar will share insights from research and experience working with funeral homes throughout the year and from coast to coast. Learn how digital marketing has evolved and how to make it work best for you Learn how a recession creates opportunities for market share gains Learn how your website can allow you to sell more online by offering products consumers want The potential in email marketing New service offerings to get 5-star reviews How to compete with lower-priced competition during a recession The Ski Seminar dates are Jan. 30 to Feb. 1. The seminar was moved to earlier in the year to assure the best skiing experience as the warmer climate could make later in February slushy. The host hotel is the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek — one of Colorado’s finest ski resorts. The resort is ski-in/ski-out and features amenities unavailable at most resorts. MKJ successfully negotiated a very good room rate (hundreds of dollars below the resort’s published room rate). Note: For the first time in MKJ’s 41-year history, we will not be conducting the annual Florida seminar, as the resort was severely damaged by Hurricane Ian. Don’t miss this up-to-date content that will be only offered at the Ski Seminar. For more information on MKJ Marketing’s upcoming seminar programs, visit www.mkjmarketing.com/seminars or call 888-655-1566 to register.
Share by: