A YouTube recording of one of Dr. Aoki’s community lectures is now viewable at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR9-6aslVqE
First summer session of 2018, Mr. Gamble co-taught a graduate level, 3 credit, social work course for the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, University of Hawaii –Manoa entitled “Death and Dying”. His co-teacher was Luisa Wyant, LCSW, a hospice social worker with 17 years of social work experience. They integrated some of Dr. Aoki’s teachings into the class and were grateful for the assistance of knowledgeable guest speakers, and community site visits, which helped to provide a fertile foundation for the growth of future compassionate, knowledgeable and skillful social workers, and other professionals, in the fields of health care and end-of-life care.
We continue to work with the University of Hawaii, West Oahu Campus, `Ulu`ulu: The Henry Ku`ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi, http://uluulu.hawaii.edu/, to digitally archive and preserve the movie “Living Your Dying”, as well as, over 250 tapes of raw footage for the film and other recordings, documenting Dr. Aoki’s work. This is becoming the “Mitsuo Aoki Collection”. If you would like to support this archive collection, donations can be made directly to the University of Hawaii Foundation https://giving.uhfoundation.org . The Fund number is 12604704 which is named the “University of Hawai’i System – Ulu’ulu — The Henry Ku’ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawai’i”. Please write in that the donation is to be used specifically for the Mitsuo Aoki Collection.
The Foundation provided a six session, 12 hour class, entitled “Learning from Dr. Mitsuo Aoki: Understanding and Working with Persons with Terminal Illness” during October and November 2017, co-sponsored with Kokua Mau and Wesley United Methodist Church. Alan Gamble, Foundation President, organized and taught the course which was based on videos of a series of 5 lectures Dr. Aoki gave in 1986. The final session on Advanced Care Planning was facilitated by Dr. Pat Nishimoto and Susie Lee, RN, knowledgeable and outstanding nurses who volunteer with the Kokua Mau speakers bureau, as well as, Mr. Gamble. National Association of Social Workers continuing education credits (up to 12 CEUs) were given to social workers who attended. Classes and CEUs were provided at no cost to the participants. Attendees were from a broad range of backgrounds including: social workers, pastoral counselors, nurses, family members and individuals facing end of life challenges. Each session’s evaluations were very positive. This will be repeated in February 2019. Please email MitsAokiLegacy@hawaii.rr.com if you are interested in attending.
Our Third Annual Foundation meeting was held September 24, 2017 at the Church of the Crossroads with approximately 125 people in attendance. We watched and discussed a movie which Dr. Aoki had made to use for teaching in conjunction with “Living Your Dying.” This movie documented two, one hour interviews he had with Dr. Roger Long, a University of Hawaii professor. The first hour was done after Roger was told he had 6 months to live and the second hour about two years later. The movie was previewed publically for the first time during the luncheon. It was a documentary style movie during which Mits and Roger have an open, candid, dialog about life, death, and the remarkable, personal journey Roger was experiencing. It was very well received and deeply moving.
Reverend Mitsuo Aoki’s 100th birthday
November 18, 2018 4th Annual Mits Aoki Legacy Foundation Luncheon and Meeting
Community-Aoki-Class-February-2019
We continue to provide counseling, support, information and referrals for individuals “Living their dying” and for family members who are going through this time with their loved one.