Abbott & Hast Publications - This Month's Issue of Mortuary Management

Cover Photo: Pine Cone in Fall by Suzanne St. John

February 2010

Contract and Support Services
Editorial by Ron Hast
Many funeral homes pride themselves in the ownership and employment of all needs, such as facilities, livery, personnel, equipment and services. Other firms seek excellence by working with contract and support services — which results in highly successful and profitable partnerships. The key to dependency on outside services and effective cooperative arrangements with other funeral providers is open communication, mutual understanding and reliable excellence.
Colleague Wisdom:
February’s question: As trends evolve, would you be receptive to detailed technical information regarding care and preparation of the deceased for family and public viewing as an alternative to embalming?
Just Conversation
Ron Hast
In the course of gathering information regarding decedent presentation for private and public viewing, with or without embalming, Ron relates some incidents that are both surprising — and not:
• A counselor stating a maximum of five minutes would be allowed for a family for visitation with the unembalmed body prior to cremation — because, he insisted, of laws protecting the public health.
• A phone conversation: “If you don’t come in and take care of your mama’s funeral by high noon, you’ll find her outside leaning up against my back door.”
• An owner/funeral director telling his assistant (who’s leaving for a graveside committal): “If all they care about their mother is a cloth-covered casket, don’t get the hearse dirty and take the van.” Sometimes unusual but real occurrences serve as wake-up calls to keep in mind the sensitivity of what we say and do. Most of us know this, but some need to be reminded.
Paperwork Issues
By Douglas O. Meyer
When families complain — or file lawsuits — documentation becomes important to support your position. But many funeral homes are sloppy about completing paperwork, which can make it difficult refuting claims or collecting what’s owed. Thorough paperwork is a mundane and seemingly trivial task, but it is vital that managers make sure employees understand its importance.
The Wal-Mart Opportunity
By Gregory Johnson
Retail giant Wal-Mart is now in the casket and urn sales business — and will soon begin recommending cooperative funeral providers that openly accept their merchandise. A market correction may thus be on the horizon for the entire funeral industry. We have withstood challenges in the past and will do so again, but we cannot ignore the issues now clearly evident. Sharing opinions and ideas is a good beginning.
The Search for Quality Staff Members Starts by Looking in the Mirror
By Howard R. Beckham, Jr. CFSP
Are the mortuary schools the primary reason good help is hard to find, or might it be — the funeral home? As owner or manager, it is your job to select people with the most potential to do the best job, then to make sure they realize that potential. It’s not so much we have fewer quality applicants as it is owners/managers willing to invest in the development of quality people. If you find individuals with potential and provide regular training, fair and generous compensation, and a respectful and pleasant work environment, you will have little problem finding — and keeping — quality employees.
A Delta Dad
By Johnny Lowe
Mortuary Management’s editor reflects on the life and passing of his father, Robert R. Lowe.
Thinking Back
By M.L. Neveu
Neveu’s California hometown, Berkeley, once had six funeral homes, with one in the adjacent city of Albany. But today just one funeral home remains to serve both cities. What changed so drastically in an area where populations have steadily increased, yet now families must seek out nearby cities for service? The answer: mergers in the late ’60s and ’70s — and later, corporations.

Rules and laws changed. Mortuaries no longer had to have an embalming room — they could be centralized, with embalming performed at one location. Caskets are now mostly shown by catalogue. And some funeral directors not only lack proper training, they might also lack compassion for the bereaved. But they can sell.

Will things go back to the way they were? With higher prices and individuals with little experience in treating families properly, it just might catch up with some of the corporations and they will discover that another “New Method” of change will come about — and they will have to change their ways and return to the once proud tradition and reputation of the real meaning of funeral service.
February Funeral Monitor
Private and Public Viewing Without Embalming as an Alternative Choice

It’s a fact that many in funeral service avoid decedent care that doesn’t include embalming. However, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated publicly that there is no prescription for embalming to protect the public health, including disaster victims, nor exposure limitations to family and others in the presence of unembalmed or embalmed bodies. Thus, misinformation to the public should be avoided.
Viewing and Public Funerals Without Embalming
By Ron Hast
Once alternative care is determined (a body will not be embalmed), certain procedures are taken — Ron discusses these steps.
The U Word
By Richard Callahan
Richard Callahan used to be an undertaker — and essentially still is, but why has the name been replaced by more politically correct terms? What’s needed, he says, “are more undertakers and fewer ‘arrangement counselors,’ death care advisors, service specialists and other euphemistic derivations of the real terms — undertaking and undertakers.”
Embalming vs. the Art of Embalming
By Ron Hast
When asked which of two funeral homes she would call on should the need arise — the one where owners and staff had little personality “but the bodies always seemed to look very nice,” or the one with engaging, delightful owners and staff (but whose bodies never seemed to look as good as the other firm’s) — the wife of a prominent funeral supply industry owner chose the one with the gracious people. Some embalmers figure the mechanics of injecting fluids, cleaning up details and applying generic makeup renders a satisfactory result — but the artist who begins with an entirely different attitude and approach to achieving the best possible appearance takes the challenge much more seriously. There can be, and often is, a great variation of good and bad results in comparing “mechanical” embalming with “the art of” embalming.
Tuning in to Women’s Wisdom…Again
By Kim Stacey
How can we make more of the time we have to do the work we love to do? Kim recently talked with Dr. Jan Yager and Julie Morgenstern, both of whom have ideas on how to do just that .
Dr. Yager is the author of Work Less, Do More; and Ms. Morgenstern is the author of Never Check E-Mail in the Morning.

Want to see more than just the headlines and abstracts?
Order your subscription securely online
from our Death Care Web Store by clicking below:

The Story Behind Our Cover Photos

During casual conversations with our readers, we are occasionally asked why the scenic covers of Mortuary Management have no relationship to funeral service. Publisher Ron Hast explains that our covers are purposely chosen to be supportive of the surroundings they are often found in. “I recall visiting funeral establishment lobbies over the years where trade magazines were visible. Covers often carried lines about embalming and other issues that could be disquieting to a bereaved family. We know that many receptionists and others read trade journals during visitation hours and covers are visible to others,” Ron says. Most readers concur. The picturesque scenes are also representative of the respect and enjoyment of nature by everyone at Abbott & Hast Publications and have been the compliment of many.
Our magazines are mailed with the label on a removable protective dust cover to allow viewing of the cover photograph in its entirety. Select cover photographs may be purchased by calling (800) 453-1199.