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Partnership Strategies 3 min read

The Trust Gap: Why Hospice Relationships Decide Who Gets the Call

Hospice teams shape which provider families choose long before the first call. Here's how funeral and cremation providers earn a place in that trust, and the new CHRS certification built to teach it.

Lacy Robinson Co-Founder, HRM
A black rotary desk telephone on a warm wooden desk beside a sunlit window, with a ceramic mug of coffee and a leather notebook nearby

Think about the last few families who walked through your doors. How many of them had already made up their minds, quietly, weeks earlier, because of a conversation with a hospice nurse, chaplain, or social worker?

If you work in funeral or cremation service, you already know the answer is “more than you’d like to admit.” Hospice is now part of more than half of all deaths in the average community. That puts hospice teams at the bedside during the most vulnerable, decision-shaping days of a family’s life, long before anyone picks up the phone to call a funeral home.

Hospice professionals aren’t handing out formal referrals. They’re simply the people families trust first. And that trust quietly steers which funeral home gets the call.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: providers who understand hospice, its language, its values, its rhythms, get invited into that trust. Providers who don’t are left wondering why they never seem to be part of the conversation until it’s too late.

That gap is exactly why I developed the curriculum behind the Certified Hospice Relations Specialist (CHRS) program, and I’m thrilled that CANA is now launching it as an official certification, debuting in Minneapolis on August 12, 2026, as a pre-convention workshop ahead of CANA’s 108th Annual Convention.

This is the first time this certification has been offered anywhere: a one-day, in-person, hands-on training built specifically for funeral and cremation professionals who want to move from passive bystander to genuine partner in end-of-life care. Johnson Consulting Group is proud to sponsor this launch, because like Greg and I, Johnson believes hospice relationship-building has moved from “nice to have” to essential.

Years of teaching, coaching, and consulting with funeral professionals have taught me one thing: the businesses that thrive versus the ones that stagnate usually differ in exactly one way, whether they know how to show up in the hospice world with confidence and purpose.

The five steps of CHRS

CHRS is built around five steps:

  • Understand: Hospice history, philosophy, and culture. You can’t build trust with people whose world you don’t understand.
  • Identify: Turning a scattered contact list into a strategic, data-informed outreach plan.
  • Connect: Crafting authentic messaging and finding your own “why” so outreach doesn’t feel like a sales pitch.
  • Collaborate: Real, field-tested examples of initiatives that genuinely serve hospice teams and their families.
  • Elevate: Measuring what’s working, solving what isn’t, and growing into community leadership over time.

This isn’t a sit-and-listen seminar. You’ll leave with:

  1. A hospice outreach plan built around your own community
  2. Messaging and tools ready to use the very next Monday
  3. A genuine understanding of where hospice and funeral care goals overlap

Every attendee receives the full CANA Hospice Relations Certification Program, a printed manual at check-in, and a digital certificate and badge after completion. Funeral licensees can also earn up to 6 continuing education hours through the Academy of Professional Service Practice, accepted in most states.

Funeral directors, cremation professionals, preneed specialists, community outreach staff, owners, and managers are all welcome, with no prerequisites required. Cemetery professionals are welcome too: while the case studies lean funeral-home-specific, the outreach strategy applies to anyone building community partnerships in this space.

Registration

  • CANA members: $595
  • Non-members: $695
  • Bundle with the full CANA convention (August 12 to 14): $1,100 members / $1,300 non-members
  • Groups of 5+: contact CANA directly for a group rate
  • Enrolled mortuary science students: reach out for special pricing

Use code WITHLACY for 10% off, as a thank-you to this community.

Understanding hospice isn’t a soft skill anymore, it’s a business fundamental. The providers who invest in that education now are the ones who’ll still be relevant, trusted, and part of the conversation a decade from now.

Minneapolis. August 12, 2026. I’d love to see you there.

Register at cremationassociation.org → with code WITHLACY for 10% off.

  • #HospicePartnerships
  • #CHRSTraining
  • #ReferralGrowth
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