Conference Agenda 2012

Pre-conference Workshop: Session 1
Doug Smith, B.A., M.Div., M.A., M.S., author, trainer, speaker and consultant, Madison, Wis.

Final Rights: Caring for the Elderly and the Terminally Ill

The workshop will examine several 'rights' of the elderly and the terminally ill: (1) the right to be in control, (2) the right to have a sense of purpose, (3) the right to touch and be touched, (4) the right to reminisce, (5) the right to have one's beliefs and values respected, (6) the right to laugh. For each 'right' there will be case studies (patient stories) presented to illustrate each 'right' as well as tools and techniques designed to promote the 'right.' The workshop will emphasize practical ways of promoting the various rights.

Objectives:

1. Explain how to design assessments and care plans that promote patient control.
2. Describe tools and techniques that sensitively approach the issues of touch, giving a sense of purpose and humor.
3. Explain simple ways of providing an elderly person or terminally ill person with a sense of meaning and value. 

Keynote Session
Therese Rando, Ph.D., BCETS, BCBT, Clinical Director, The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss, Warwick, R.I.

Trauma and Traumatic Stress in Anticipatory Mourning

Anticipatory mourning tends to be underappreciated in terms of its complexity, with attention often tending to be restricted to its loss-related elements. This keynote will attempt to correct this by addressing issues of trauma and traumatic stress in anticipatory mourning during life-threatening or terminal illness. Ms. Rando will focus on how anticipatory mourning inherently involves numerous experiences of trauma and is substantially impacted by the resulting traumatic stress. The focus will be on identifying these phenomena and explicating techniques and intervention strategies to help patients and families cope with them.

Objectives:

1. List the six clinical dimensions of anticipatory mourning.
2. Discuss how anticipatory mourning inherently involves traumatic stress.
3. Identify at least three intervention strategies for traumatic stress during life-threatening or terminal illness.

Poster Sessions

Next Steps Advance Care Planning
Carol Berra, Palliative Care, Gundersen Lutheran
Next Steps Advance Care Planning is a disease specific, patient centered, facilitated conversation with patients who have advanced illness. This conversation is held with the patient, their healthcare agent and a trained facilitator. The conversation explores patient’s knowledge of their disease and possible complications. Based on their goals, values and experiences, patients are offered an opportunity choose treatment options in specific situations related to their individual disease. The conversation benefits patient, agent and healthcare provider.

Objectives:

1. Describe how Next Steps Advance Care Planning is different than the basic Advance Care Planning.
2. Describe the benefits of Next Steps Advance Care Planning.
3. List the 6 stages specific to Next Steps Advance Care Planning.

Mental health morbidity in women thirty months after the death of a child in the 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake
Yao Xu, Ph.D. candidate, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Koohsar
There are long term mental health consequences of exposure to disasters or child loss. People who have faced these circumstances simultaneously therefore have high vulnerability to chronic mental health morbidity. This study investigated the prevalence of anxiety, depression, PTSD and prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in women 30 months after they had lost a child in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake (China). Of 226 participants, 82.3% (186) had depression, 82.3% (186) had PTSD, 88.9% (201) had PGD and 33.6% (76) had anxiety. 85.4% (193) were experiencing more than one disorder. The most prevalent co-morbidity was co-occurring of depression, PTSD and PGD (103/226).

Objectives:

1. Child loss
2. Disasters
3. Mental health

Religious Worldview as the Mental Protection of the Adults in the Adult Period
Abolghasem Peiade-koohsar, Member of Department of Islamic Studies, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood Branch,  Daneshgah bulvar, Shahrood,Semnan, Iran
Protections of Adult Period; Mental protections as the readiness to adult period and Death; A man is a combination of two elements; body and soul. In spite of the significance of the body and its conditions, it is our mind that controls and orients our behavior. A disturbed mind leads a perfectly healthy body to inactivity and a hopeful mind can lead a sick or deficient body to the activity and effort and consequently to a positive and happy life. As its title shows, the adultness period is a period in which our body in its natural procedure had undergone ageing. Our actions have been calm, our muscles have been week, and our reactions have been very slow.

Objectives:

1. Mental protection is more important than physical protections of adults
2. Religious beliefs are the best and the most important element in the mental protection
3. Experience proves the doctrines of the world religions are more practical in order to have a positive and happy adult period

Bedside Bereavement Care in the Labor & Delivery Setting: The Impact on Grief Reorganization/Resolution
Joyce L. Merrigan, RNC, RTS Bereavement Coordinator, Somerset Medical Center, Somerville, N.J.
Description coming soon!

Maintaining Healthy Boundaries When You Have to Give So Much
Barb Martin, Bereavement Coordinator, Hospice Care of America, Rockford, Ill.
The phrase "healthy boundaries" to some in the hospice field is an oxymoron, however to those who do not consciously maintain healthy boundaries, they find themselves feeling burned-out. In the hospice profession, there is an ongoing maturing process. In the COMFORT-ABILITY SCALE there are 4 stages hospice professionals will experience throughout their hospice journey. Being a hospice professional isn't just a job, it is a passion. Because of that passion, we have a tendency to give too much of ourselves. Having a solid understanding of our individual boundaries allows one to become and continue to be a caring, passionate, mature hospice provider, allowing one to give without losing themselves.

Objectives:

1. Defining healthy boundaries
2. Comfort-Ability Scale-What stage is one in. Define these stages and they are ongoing
3. Gain an increased level of comfort in ones work, their abilities emotional and professional maturity=satisfaction & healthy boundaries

Advance Care Planning: The "Next Steps"
Verona Lachman, RN Care Coordinator, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wis.
Ms. Lachman is involved in a 5-year Medicare demonstration project to improve quality of patient care and reduce cost. This program is called Advance Disease Coordination. The facility is one of three in the country that was chosen for this project. Disease Specific-Patient Centered Advance Care Planning is completed with patients who have progressive chronic disease. The patient’s surrogate is also included in the discussion. These discussions enable patients to verbalize their wishes for future health care to their family members and have those wishes documented into their medical record. The goal is to have patient's guide their future health care decisions.

Objectives:

1. Identify the three steps in Advance Care Planning
2. Describe Disease Specific Patient Centered Advance Care Planning
3. Describe Advance Disease Coordination Program

When Birth and Death Collide: Best Practices in End-of-Life at the Beginning
Lori Ives-Baine, Palliative Care and Bereavement Coordinator, Neonatology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
This presentation will focus on how pediatric and adult-based principles can be applied to the newborn period. This work has been created by a team in the NICU, who want to ensure the best situations for families where life-sustaining medical therapy is being withdrawn, in support of the family unit. Ethics is a huge part of this experience, and our framework of best interests of the baby and family are forefront in our thinking. We will focus on what we CAN do rather than what we cannot, to help the family.

Objectives:

1. Participants will have a better understanding of palliative care in the NICU and how it can walk alongside active support.
2. Participants will be able to describe 2 ethical challenges that can be supported through perinatal palliative care.
3. Participants will have an understanding of several supports that can be offered families through the journey of palliative and bereavement care.

Where are my Peeps?  Hospice Initiated Community-Wide Grief Education Programs for Informal Support Persons
Laurel Hilliker, Ph.D., Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
For decades, and with good intentions, scholars have studied the complexities of bereavement to provide assistance for grieving people. Perhaps it is time for our focus to shift to those closest to the chief mourners. Bereaved people often struggle with a desire for their informal support systems, such as family members, friends and work colleagues, to better understand and support them. Given that Hospice workers are already in a position to equip family members with informational support on grief, this presentation explores how Hospice may also be a good venue for community-wide grief education programs for the general public.

Objectives:

1. To explore the progress scholars and practitioners have made towards the understanding of bereavement.
2. To investigate the changing landscape of support for the bereaved in contemporary society.
3. To examine offering educational programs through Hospice that educate the general public on grief and on the various needs of those experiencing different types of bereavement.

Keynote Session

Attachments and Losses: Individual and Global Perspectives

Studies of the influence of child development on adult life and bereavement have given rise to significant developments in Attachment and Loss Theory. They throw light on the nature of extreme or insecure attachments, (including attachments to God, Homes, Territories and Nations) that increase the probability of violent or dysfunctional responses to loss at individual, family, group and even national levels. They have important implications for helping people faced with such losses and have special relevance to understanding and responding to murders, terrorism and other deadly violence.

Objectives:

1. To demonstrate how insecure attachments in childhood can give rise to insecure, and sometimes extreme attachments in adult life, increasing vulnerability to stress and loss, and increasing the risk of pathological or excessive responses.
   
2. To show how insecure patterns of attachment to people can also be reflected in attachments to God, homes, territories, and their symbols and representatives (e.g. priests and political leaders), with similar consequences when threatened.
   
3. To identify people in a position to intervene, and methods of intervention, that hold out hope of preventing or mitigating these harmful effects.

Woodcutters and Porcelain Bowls: Stories of Our Lives and Our Deaths
Joy Johnson, Retired: Centering Corporation and Ted E. Bear Hollow founder, Omaha, Neb.
This technology-free, participant-lively session will explore the power of story and storytelling for those caring for the dying, the families we serve and the dying person herself. Stories included will be "Death and the Woodcutter," "The Girl in the Porcelain Bowl," "Lucy Lettuce: A Head of Her Time," "Slow-Moving Limousines," "Clackety-Clack Bones," "How Death Came to be Invisible," "Sisiutal," "Crossing Bok Chitto" and other favorites appropriate to the audience. Participants will also write stories and share the power of their ancestry.

Objectives:

1. To build group among a powerful group of participants who consider themselves "family."
2. To discover the power of our ancestry stories and how they provide strength in our caring.
3. To refresh and enliven those attending the conference in both their own value and the gratitude of those for whom they care.
   

Imagining Community: Walking Together as an Interdisciplinary Team
Rev. Brian K. Shaffer, CPBS, GC-C, FT, Bereavement Coordinator & Pastoral Bereavement Specialist/Grief Counselor, Odyssey Hospice & Grief Steps, LLC, Gahanna, Ohio
Research increasingly demonstrates a link between spirituality and decreased morbidity, greater quality of life, and increased longevity. But how do we as health care professionals incorporate spirituality in the health encounter? This program will outline different definitions of spirituality, review studies of patient preferences regarding spirituality and healthcare, discuss recent research linking spirituality to improved health outcomes and provide some basic training in screening and discussion of spirituality through clinical role-plays.

Objectives:

1. Identify and describe the Interdisciplinary Team and a community approach to care for a patient and family in hospice care
2. Identify and describe the characteristics common to the language of community and grief
3. Identify and describe 3-5 ways to incorporate spirituality by the Interdisciplinary Team

Creating "Grace Moments": Nuances and Subtleties (at End-of-Life & After-Death) that Influence a Transformative Path
Laurel Burnett, M.A., LCPC, NCC, Counselor, Private Practice, Albuquerque, N.M.
"Grace Moments" provide healing opportunities. Companioning of the dying involves a broad spectrum of compassionate care, such as: presence, kind actions, touch, encouragement, active listening, prayer, scripture, music and comfort care for pain. Bearing witness to an end-of-life journey can be especially heartfelt when there are complexities such as unmanageable physical pain, arguing or violent family members, estrangement, unresolved spiritual distress or any number of dynamics that s-t-r-e-t-c-h the human capacity for providing comfort. When we (even as members of the best hospice team) feel a sense of helplessness, what then? Grace Moments.

Objectives:

1. Describe "grace moments" and ways that providers can be alert to, listen for, hear, and see ways to create healing moments.
2. Examine 10 case study examples of "grace moments" of hospice patients and their family members.
3. Identify 10 "strategies and helpful tips" to enhance personal and professional resources to create "grace moments."

Keynote Session

Hospice and Palliative Care around the World

Hospice and palliative care are essential to any health care system, especially with the growing burden of chronic disease in rapidly aging populations and the continuing impact of HIV and TB. Slow progress is being made in growing palliative care globally. Only 20 (8.5%) countries have palliative care that is well integrated into country health care systems and only about 12% of the need for palliative care is being met worldwide. In this presentation we will explore the current challenges for growing palliative care globally, how palliative care is provided around the world, and what we can learn from other countries and cultures about delivering quality palliative care.

Objectives:

1. Describe the need for palliative care worldwide and the extent to which this need is now unmet
2. Identify the challenges facing development of palliative care globally
3. Describe the emerging models of palliative care in other countries and cultures
   

Poster Sessions

Roadside Memorials...how we honor and pay respect on a public byway
Laurel Burnett, M.A., LCPC, NCC, Counselor, Private Practice, Albuquerque, N.M.

Roadside memorials can be seen alongside paved, gravel and dirt roadways. How do we as individuals, as a community, and as a nation respond to these roadside memorials? What are the cultural and regional implications? For professionals that deal with death and dying and end-of-life issues, do we view these roadside memorials in a broader manner, as ritual, and honoring of loved one's lost? This poster session will provide photographs of diverse memorials and encourage discussion of what one "feels" and "thinks" upon viewing the unique memorials.

Objectives:

1. (Through photographs) Review diverse types of roadside memorials.
2. Identify a pattern of responses (from viewing the memorials), and determine personal and/or professional impact.
3. Describe ways communities honor the dead (for those who have lost their lives in traffic) with cultural and regional influences.

Turning Grief into Comfort: Leaving One's Legacy
Jeannie M. Bush, Designer and Owner, Quilting From My Heart, La Crosse, Wis.

In today's world, we are pushed to clear out our loved one's clothing quickly after the funeral. A month or year down the road, the family and friends left behind regret that action. They wish they could feel his favorite flannel shirt, smell mom's apple pie baking apron, and see the worn elbows of his sport jacket. During Palliative Care and Hospice is the perfect time to open the conversation about slowing down the clean-out after the death of a loved one. Their clothing can turn grief into comfort: a bear and backpack from a sport jacket, wall hanging from shirts, quilts from shirt, jeans or hankies, clocks from hankies, pillows from / aprons. . .endless ways for the living to feel comfort.

Objectives:

1. Learn how to start the conversation about leaving a legacy using one's clothing
2. Learn what questions to pose to families during the Hospice stay
3. Learn resources for Hospice patients and their families

Don't Flush the Goldfish
Rev. Brian K. Shaffer, CPBS, GC-C, FT, Bereavement Coordinator & Pastoral Bereavement Specialist/Grief Counselor, Odyssey Hospice & Grief Steps, LLC, Gahanna, Ohio
Sometimes, sadness, fear, illness and loss enter a child’s life. Using children’s literature as a springboard for conversations will give kids the chance to express their feelings, tell their own stories, and deal with difficult issues. Children should have access to a variety of books covering a broad range of emotions and life events. This presentation will demonstrate how to use books and everyday happenings to build a child’s coping skills to act more independently, assume responsibility for their actions, tolerate frustration, approach new challenges with enthusiasm, and be proud of their accomplishments.

Objectives:

1. Describe common characteristics/hallmarks of children's grief and mourning
2. Identify children's literature relating to coping mechanisms of change, loss, and grief
3. Describe use of hands on activities relating to children's literature

Listen to My Stories
Jennifer LaPorte-McCanles, Vice President, Administration, Terra Nova, Inc., Waukesha, Wis.
Listen to my Stories is a service in which trained volunteers are available to compassionately listen to the stories of hospice patients and, as desired, to assist in documenting these stories.
For those who wish to record their memories, formats include: Written, Visual, Audio or video recording. Various techniques are used by the volunteers to facilitate the recollection of these stories. Conversations are private and done with the patient’s desires in mind. The sessions may be conducted on a one-on-one basis or as a group. Results of the process are confidential and only shared as directed by the individuals involved.

Objectives:

1. We believe that remembering who we were helps us to know who we are.
2. We believe that sharing ones’ experiences can bring an added level of peace and comfort to a person’s life, at times promoting healing and a sense of well-being.
3. We believe these stories may have a lasting impact on future generations.

The Development of a No One Dies Alone Program in a Level 1 Trauma / Stroke Certified Facility
Nan Morgan, Clinical Educator and current chair of the No One Dies Alone Program at Swedish Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center, Englewood, Colo.
Not every patient in a hospital has the presence of their friends and family at their bedside as they take their final breaths. For those patients at risk for dying alone the chaplain or the nursing staff have the opportunity to call off duty hospital employees and volunteers to take the place of family through the No One Dies Alone Program. This is the story of how it came to life and has responded to over forty activations in the past year. We have learned many lessons, and we would like to share.

Objectives:

1. Identify  one benefit to the compassionate companion for participation in the No One Dies Alone Program
2. Discuss two orientation considerations with the development of a No One Dies Alone Program
3. Hear, share and discuss personal reflections in the No One Dies Alone journal accounts from the first year of the program

“It Will Do When I Am Dying. . . ” Navigating the Nuances of Fundamentalist Christianity’s Understandings of Death and Dying
Harold Ivan Smith, D.Min., FT, Teaching faculty/thanatologist, St. Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.
“The Old Time Religion,” a song once widely sung by fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, insists that their understanding of faith will moderate the dying process. Various theological constructs on personal salvation influence decisions about the process and conditions of dying. Problems arise, however, when all members of a family—particularly a dysfunctional family--do not share or value those religious traditions and theological affirmations. Moreover, the nuances and interpretations may be confusing to medical and hospice personnel. How does one “receive” or challenge religious ideas that complicating dying?

Objectives:

1. Describe common element in a fundamentalist-evangelical understanding of a “good” death and the afterlife.
2. Explore ways to negotiate faith understandings that complicate end-of-life care and comfort.
3. Identify ways to comfort individuals marginalized in the dying because they do not share theological understands of the dying individual or key family members.

Palliative Care in the Wisconsin Prison System
Margie Barnes, BSW, CSW, Medical Social Worker and Palliative Care Coordinator, Dodge Correctional /Bureau of Health Services, Waupun, Wis.
Jim Hebel, RN, Nursing Supervisor and Assistant Director of Health Care in the Infirmary, Dodge Correctional/ Bureau of Health Services, Waupun, Wis.
To present through word and power point and video the history of the struggle to put the Palliative/Hospice program in place within the prison system. The growth and positive aspects that have come out of this unique program and the conflicts we still experience today.

Objectives:

1. To inform the observers of the differences between Correctional EOL care and the community EOL care
2. To help the observers realize the obstacles and barriers to delivery of care
3. To inform of the history of EOLC in the Correctional setting

Keynote Session

Kathie Kobler, MS, APN, PCNS-BC, CHPPN, Pediatric Palliative Care, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital, Park Ridge, Ill.

Honoring Relationship in Pediatric Palliative Care

Initiating and maintaining relationship with children and their families is at the heart of quality pediatric palliative care. This session will provide an overview of the principles of quality pediatric palliative care. Narratives and cases studies will be used to explore the “how-to” of relationship-based care, balancing perspectives of self and those of the patient and family. The importance of co-creation of ritual between care providers, children and parents will be explored, highlighting the transforming and healing nature of ritual for all participants.

Objectives:

1. Describe babies and children who would benefit from receiving pediatric palliative care
2. Identify strategies for initiating and maintaining relationship with children and their families
3. Describe ways to incorporate ritual in the care of dying babies, children and their families
   

Meeting the Stress Challenge
Neil Thompson, Ph.D., DLitt, Avenue Consulting Ltd., Wales, U.K.
Working in situations involving high levels of emotion have the potential to be very stressful. The need to avoid stress has received extensive attention in recent years, but unfortunately much of the discussion of this topic has been oversimplified. In particular, it has adopted an almost exclusive focus on individual factors without paying adequate attention to social and organizational factors. This presentation therefore argues the case for a more holistic approach to stress, how it can be prevented and how it can be managed when it does arise.

Objectives:

1. To clarify the harm that stress can do to individuals, groups and whole organizations.
2. To present the case for a more holistic approach to stress that incorporates social and organizational factors.
3. To explore practical strategies for preventing and managing stress

Palliative Care's Role at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center
Nancy Graham, RN, Registered Nurse, Gundersen Lutheran, La Crosse, Wis.
Laura Wiedman, RN Care Coordinator, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wis.
Palliative medicine is an important addition to the care of patients with serious, chronic illness. This care is provided in acute care settings, often when patients are actively dying. While not a mature practice, there has been growing evidence of benefits of earlier palliative care introduction and co-management of patients with advanced chronic illness. / The goal of Palliative Care is early identification of patients that would benefit from those services regarding early care planning and the coordination of care across the continuum of care. Palliative Care can assist in the transition of patients to Hospice at the appropriate time in the course of their disease process.

Objectives:

1. Verbalize the role of Palliative Care in fostering communication between the patients and their healthcare agent and/or families
2. List 2 types of ethical dilemmas faced by practitioner who provide palliative care services.
3. State 3 ways that Palliative Care and Hospice are different and how Palliative Care can assist patients in the transition to Hospice

Therapeutic Robots - PARO: A New Therapy for Palliation and Hospice Care - What can these seals teach us about those we serve?
Andrew Vitale, Director of Bereavement Services, Passages Hospice, Rockford, Ill.
Corey Tague, Hospice Educator, Passages Hospice, Rockford, Ill.
In bullets: What is a PARO Robot? Is this therapy important for dementia care? Hospice care? Why? Practical applications world-wide/Demonstration of PARO/Testimonials - Responses from the field/Danish Study and other studies along with results and study visits on Depression and Behavioral Symptoms/Passages Hospice is the first hospice company in the U.S. to have this specific therapy/PARO robot holds the title "World's most therapeutic robot" from Guinness Book/PARO robot was approved by the FDA in 2009. The presentation will discuss a wide-variety of information about PARO robots (they have names too!) and how they have aided in the clinical/emotional side of hospice care.

Objectives:

1. Identify information about PARO robot as an additional form of therapy
2. Discuss various studies that show the value of the robot in dementia/hospice/palliative care
3. Discuss reactions of recent patient visits and it's outcome

And the Sun Refused to Shine…
Susan Adams, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, ACS, Assistant Professor, Counseling & Development, Texas Woman's University, Denton, Texas
Dealing with a family member’s death is never easy. Hospice and palliative care have come a long way, but too many people – both trained and untrained – view it as “giving up.” When unresolved family issues get tangled up in the quality versus quantity of life, it certainly complicates the psychological, emotional, and spiritual struggles of the patient’s support system. This presentation will use personal counseling experiences to examine different ways of working with the patient and family when complicating factors of geographic distance, differences in reaction and treatment plan concepts and meaning making become stumbling blocks to prevent positive support.

Objectives:

1. Briefly examine the impact of life-threatening illness on the family system.
   
2. Explore case studies focused on both positive and negative outcome of counseling support through the end-of-life journey and/or surfaced following death.
   
3. Briefly discuss the importance of self-care as you work with families in either Objective 2.

The “Other” Kind of Pain: Understanding Suicide in the Context of End-of-Life Care
Janet S. McCord, Ph.D., FT, Chair: Edwin S. Shneidman Department of Thanatology, Marian University, Fond du Lac, Wis.
Although it is not widely discussed, suicide attempts by hospice patients and the desire by many diagnosed with terminal illnesses to die either by their own hand or with physician assistance is a fact. Those who work in the field of death, dying, grief and bereavement can benefit from a more comprehensive knowledge of suicide, its causes, prevention strategies and bereavement after suicide. This presentation will offer a general overview of suicide with special attention to the context of hospice, the different perspectives regarding the causes of suicide and strategies for prevention and postvention (bereavement).

Objectives:

1. List common risk factors for suicide.
   
2. Identify strategies for assessment and postvention.
   
3. Discuss suicide in the context of hospice care.

A Possible Marriage Between Hospices and Funeral Homes
Doug Smith, B.A., M.Div., M.A., M.S., author, trainer, speaker and consultant, Madison, Wis.
Tara Potter, Continuing Care Coordinator, Cress Funeral Service, Madison, Wis.
The two presenters, one with extensive experience in hospice and the other with extensive experience in the funeral industry, have come up with a model of cooperation between the industries that can result in the saving of money, positive public relations and increased effectiveness of service for both industries. The model is just in its developmental stage, but the presenters will give a "how-to" approach for having it be implemented in any community.

Objectives:

1. Explain how funeral homes can have a value-added service that increases their community reputation as it increases potential referrals.
   
2. Discuss how hospices can significantly increase their bereavement services as they save money on their current bereavement budget.
   
3. Describe a model of cooperation between funeral homes and hospices that eliminate possible duplication of services and increases employee productiveness.
   

Keynote Session

In the death: Professionals who care for the dying and the bereaved

Most models in palliative and bereavement care adopt a patient or family-centered approach which addresses holistically the multiple needs of those who live with the threat or reality of death. While such models illuminate the private worlds of dying and bereaved people, they tend to disregard how practitioners affect and are being affected by the people who die or grieve. Purpose of this presentation is to discuss the value of a relationship-centered approach in end-of-life and bereavement care which recognizes the reciprocal influence between care seekers and care providers who develop a relationship that is distinct from other helping relationships as a result of its exposure to death.  Emphasis will be placed on the private worlds of professionals by describing aspects of a suffering that is healthy, unavoidable and integral to the care at the end of life and through bereavement.  In addition, this presentation aims to shed light upon the functional and dysfunctional coping patterns by which teams manage the distress and suffering of professionals, as well as upon to those working conditions which enhance team resilience.

Objectives:

• Understand the basic principles of relationship-centered care
• Recognize aspects of the care provider's suffering in the face of death
• Recognize functional and dysfunctional coping patterns by which teams cope with suffering in the face of death