Below are past BC Palliative Care ECHO sessions we have hosted. You can access the related resources by clicking through on the sessions that interest you. Please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you are interested in receiving a copy of presentation slides.
Objectives
- Build upon the conversations from the 2022 All Together Symposium hosted by BCCPC
- Provide opportunities for participants to network and share their knowledge and experiences
Past sessions & resources:
Please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you are interested in a pdf copy of presentation slides
Part of the All Together ECHO Series
This in-service session offers an insightful, step-by-step journey through the development of the Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society’s (PGHPCS) Home Hospice Program—a compassionate model of care that brings hospice support directly into the homes of those nearing the end of life. Attendees will gain a deep understanding of how the program was conceived, thoughtfully planned, effectively implemented, and is continuously evaluated to ensure high-quality care and responsiveness to community needs.
Presenters: Donna Flood, Executive Director, Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society & Erin Connelly, Director of Operations, Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society
Session resources:
- Session summary notes
- Session recording: YouTube
Part of the All Together ECHO Series
Men’s Sheds of BC is a trailblazing organization dedicated to fostering a sense of belonging amongst men and addressing social isolation and loneliness. Men’s Sheds of BC offers a welcoming, peer-supported space to help men, both young and old, who are often reluctant to join traditional programs, overcome barriers to connection and community.
Presenter: Curtis Quinn, BC Men’s Sheds
Session resources
- Session Summary Note
- Session recording: YouTube
Part of the All Together ECHO Series
How does a small rural community with limited medical resources and aging volunteers enhance supports for people with life-changing illness and their families? Join Quadra Island Compassionate Community’s project team to share approaches, including educating the community to help themselves and each other to navigate the challenges of serious illness, caregiving, end-of-life and grieving
Presenters: Maureen McDowell (Quadra Circle), Jude McCormick (Way To Go Group), Kathleen Monahan (Nav-CARE)
Session resources:
Part of the All Together ECHO Series
This volunteer-based program has supported palliative patients and families from the Ismaili Community in the Lower Mainland since 2017. The presenter will share the team’s key experiences and learnings and will review the unique tools that the program has developed to rapidly assess the supports required by palliative patients and their families.
Presenter: Afzal Mangalji
Session Resources
- YouTube session recording link
- Session summary notes
Part of the All Together ECHO Series
This series is a compassionate communities initiative, open to health care providers, volunteers, volunteer lead organizations, community groups, and individuals looking to be inspired by and learn from others developing compassionate communities.
Session description: Shifting landscapes in healthcare necessitate shifts in how we think about service delivery. Following the presentation of experiences of moving from a traditional facility-based hospice model to a community services-based model to meet the needs of the community and increase access to services, participants will have opportunity to engage and reflect with learnings.
Presenters:
- Kara Lyons-Dietz, Community Health Services and Hospice Manager, Island Health
- Katie Hennessy, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Palliative & End of Life Care, Island Health
Other past sessions – please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you’re interested in session resources from the list below. Session recordings are available on YouTube.
2024
- A Rural Approach to the Compassionate Community Model – presenter: Meghan Derkach
- Essential Conversations with Peter and Joe – presenters: Melody Jobse & Kathleen Yue
- Exploring the role and impact of Advance Care Planning on patient, family and caregiver grief and bereavement (cross-over with Grief & Bereavement Literacy series) – presenter: Melody
- Go Grey – Why museum resources are good for the well-being of seniors – presenter: Kim Gough
- Wind Phones: Transcending Time and Space, Keeping Relationships in Place – presenter: Heather Fraser, Brittany Borean
- Psychosocial and Nutritional Support for Hospitalized Vulnerable Isolated Seniors Transitioning Home – presenter: Leila Reshid
- Quiet Change. Journeying Through Life’s Final Chapter with Dignity and Love – presenters: Dr. Greg Andreas, Jared Basil
- Compassion is Courage: How Our Neurobiology Supports Compassion Cultivation – presenter: Don Cowie
2023
- Compassion Matters – presenter: Melody Jobse
- Compassionate Communities: Together for Palliative Care – presenters: Connie Stam, Nancy McPhee
- Prescriptions beyond the pharmacy: The social prescribing approach to wellbeing – presenter: Simon Anderson
- Developing Dementia-Inclusive Spaces for Community Access, Participation, and Engagement (DemSCAPE) – presenter: Cari Randa
Session resources
- Session summary notes
- Session recording: YouTube
Join us in exploring the topic of Planetary Health in Hospice Palliative Care. This session will introduce you to ways to prepare for climate-related emergencies and how to create climate-informed health programs. Presenters will share, from their British Columbia context, their experiences in kidney care to explore impacts of climate-related emergencies and how to create climate-informed health programs across the spectrum of palliative care including Hospice care. Come to learn from their experiences, tools they have developed or adapted, and share how you too are working towards creating a culture of environmental sustainability across palliative care settings.
Session resources
- Heat Check Tool : https://ncceh.ca/sites/default/files/NCCEH%20Extreme%20Heat%20Event%20-%20Health%20Checklist%20WEB_0.pdf
- Session summary notes
Part of the Climate, Planetary Health & Palliative Care ECHO Series
The Emergency Response in Home Health at Island Health is aimed to more efficiently identify clients most at risk and enhance staff safety during any emergency situation. This process has improved the program’s ability to monitor staff and client safety while also raising awareness of heat-related illness and safety through discussions and informational brochures in preparation for emergencies
Presenters: Saskia Wald, Island Health and Elaine Heffe, Island Health
Overall Learning Objective:
The sessions aim to support health care providers incorporate the palliative approach to care into their daily practice. We’ve been running this series since Fall 2022
Cohort 5 Sessions & Resources
Part of our Flexing Your Core ECHO series
This session explores concepts such as privilege, personal and systemic biases and how it can lead to culturally inappropriate care. Scenarios will be shared, and the session will focus on recognizing ways to respond towards providing culturally safer care.
Competency domain: Cultural Safety & Humility
Part of our Flexing Your Core ECHO series
This session introduces key concepts of a palliative approach. We will discuss who would benefit from a palliative approach to care and talk about a health care provider’s role in providing this approach to care for their patients. A case study will be discussed with participants to give opportunity to reflect on their learnings.
Competency domain: Principles of a Palliative Approach to Care
Session resources
In this session we will identify and discuss common ethical issues in palliative care and we will talk through steps to take in addressing ethical issues by discussing a case scenario. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss how education, evaluation, QI and research are important in palliative care context.
Part of our Flexing Your Core ECHO series
Session resources
We will identify the importance of determining a person’s goals for their care at end of life and discuss key elements of anticipatory care planning along with some ideas on what advocacy in your role can look like.
Part of our Flexing Your Core ECHO series
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers. We hope to attract a wide range of people including health care providers, community organizational staff and volunteers, and those personally affected by loss.
Past Session Resources
Please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you are interested in a pdf copy of presentation slides
Session resources
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
This session explores the moments when individuals report waking experiences of the deceased, which can include seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling the touch of the deceased. Normalizing these experiences can help reduce distress in all those who experience them in bereavement and at the end of life.
Poster you can print and share linked here. *This session is scheduled for 75min*
Presenter:
- Joshua Black, Ph.D. – Bereavement Initiatives Manager, BC Centre for Palliative Care
with guests:
- Marney Thompson, M.A., Director of Bereavement Services, Victoria Hospice Society
- Paul Adams, co-chair of the Canadian Grief Alliance
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources
- Session summary document
- Session recording: YouTube
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
This workshop explores the unique experiences of grief and bereavement within the South Asian community. Gain insights and be better equipped to support this diverse immigrant group, with varied cultural practices and faiths, in a culturally sensitive manner. Poster you can print and share linked here. *This session is scheduled for 75min*
Presenters: Jas Cheema, MA
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources
- Session summary document
- Session recording: YouTube
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
This session centers on the importance of building compassionate, trust-based relationships as an important step in supporting grief and bereavement in communities who are systematically oppressed. By prioritizing empathy and connection, participants will explore ways to nurture meaningful relationships as a foundational step toward healing and support. Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenters: Jennie Biltek, Client Services Coordinator, Sunshine Coast Hospice Society
Stephanie Laing, PhD(c), MSW, RSW – Director of Operations, Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre
Jaylene Scheible – Community Care Collaborator & Consultant
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources
- Session recording: YouTube
- session summary notes
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
Front-line nurses, and clinicians, carry the weight of repeated loss — sitting with patients in their final moments, then moving immediately to the next urgent task. Research in hospice and palliative care shows this cumulative, often unacknowledged grief impacts our emotional health, our relationships with patients, and our ability to sustain compassionate care over time. This session will weave clinical narratives with current evidence to explore how we can name, honor, and address professional grief — and why policy change, including bereavement leave reform, is essential to protect the wellbeing of care providers.
Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Laura Finkler-Kemeny, RN Clinical Lead, Serious Illness Communication, BC Centre for Palliative Care
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources
- Session summary notes
- session recording: YouTube video
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
This talk is a conversation about tattoos, grief, and growth. Stories will be drawn from research and personal experience. The three speakers are all social workers who love to talk about tattoos, the intersection of taboo, the connection to the deceased and the way they can contribute to the process of meaning making.
Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Susan Cadell, PhD, RSW Professor, School of Social Work, Renison University College
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources
- 2025.06.26 Session summary notes
- Session recording: YouTube
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
This session will have a presentation with time for Q & A.
Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Veronica Tod, Grief Support Manager at Abbotsford Hospice and Grief Support Society
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources
- Session video recording: YouTube link
- Dementia education: coping with change, grief & loss – resources list
- Session summary and discussion
- Presentation slides
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
Care partners often experience a continuous and profound sense of loss as they walk alongside a person living with dementia. This webinar will delve into the unique challenges that care partners face, illuminating the multifaceted nature of grief throughout the dementia journey. Participants will explore how grief manifests differently at various stages, from early diagnosis to advanced disease progression. We will also address the often-overlooked emotional toll on care partners and provide strategies for recognition and support.
Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Susan Prosser, Provincial Coordinator of Education at Alzheimer’s Society of BC
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources:
- Session summary notes
- Session recording: YouTube link
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
This session will discuss the challenges and resilience in the 2SLGBTQ+ community relating to grief and bereavement. Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Geoff Straw, M.A., Registered Clinical Counsellor
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session resources:
- session summary notes
- Session recording: YouTube
- Resource – Family caregivers of BC services
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
A discussion on the power of community support, self-advocacy, and meaning-making in helping family and friend caregivers transition from caregiving to grieving. Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Aaron Yukich, Caregiver Rx Social Prescribing Project Lead, Family Caregivers of British Columbia
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Session Resources:
- session summary notes
- Session recording: YouTube
- Canadian Grief Alliance webpage
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series
Please join Paul and Marney for this ECHO session where they will share insights and updates from the Canadian Grief Alliance (CGA). Learn about the CGA national grief survey and professional consultation results and the needs that were identified through these projects. Also, hear about the CGA Grief Chats and the questions and concerns voiced by grieving Canadians. Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Marney Thompson, Director of Bereavement Services, Victoria Hospice Society
Paul Adams, Co-chair, Canadian Grief Alliance
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.
Other past sessions – please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you’re interested in session resources from the list below. Session recordings are available on YouTube.
2024
- Dreaming Of The Deceased (People Or Animal) Following A Loss – presenter: Dr. Joshua Black
- Sleep After Loss – presenter: Dr. Michael Mak
- Exploring the role and impact of Advance Care Planning on patient, family and caregiver grief and bereavement (cross-over session with All Together series) – presenter: Melody Jobse
- Teen Grief: Responding, Rebuilding and Relearning – presenter: Trevor Josephson
- Grief in the Workplace – presenter: Laurel Gillespie
- You Are Missing From Me: the Lifelong Grief of Bereaved Parents – presenter: Mary Coleman
- Bereavement in the Context of Homelessness – presenters: Dr. Joshua Black, Dr. Stephanie Laing
- Disenfranchised Loss: Addressing the Needs of Pet Loss Grief Support – presenter: Pam Bilusack
- The Next Day: What Happens After Someone Dies – presenter: Emily Bootle
- The Playful Art of Supporting Children with Grief: Using Play Therapy as a Way to Communicate – presenter: Dallas Shirley
2023
- The Impact of Covid on Bereavement in BC – presenter: Dr. Joshua Black
- How to Best Support Bereaved People in Post COVID Era: Provincial Evidence-Informed Recommendations by Knowledge Users in BC – presenter: Dr. Joshua Black
- Healing Hearts Support – Finding Hope and Resilience After a Substance Use Related Loss – presenter: Jennifer Howard
- Grieving the Death of a Pet – presenter: Jennifer Dacre
- Children’s Grief – Minecraft Kids Grief Program – presenter: Meaghan Jackson
- Pregnancy and Infant Loss – A Misunderstood Grief – presenter: Nancy Slinn
- Grief and Loss During the Holidays – presenter: Pam Bilusack
Session Resources
- Presentation recording: YouTube
- Session presentation summary notes
This session is open to anyone wanting to learn about a nationally accessible social prescription, Red Cross Friendly Calls program
What if we told you, that a meaningful connection was just a phone call away? Join us to learn how the Canadian Red Cross is addressing the devastating impacts of social isolation and loneliness through the Friendly Calls program and how this supports your work within palliative care. A nationally accessible social prescription, Friendly Calls impacts personal wellbeing for patients, caregivers, and volunteers alike; strengthens resilience and capacity within communities; and alleviates pressure on the health care system.
Presenters:
- Asha Croggon, Director of Friendly Calls program, Canadian Red Cross
- Doris Sun, BCY Friendly Calls Coordinator
- Michelle Rajani, BCY Friendly Calls Coordinator
Session resources
- Session summary notes
- Presentation recording: YouTube
Reintegrating into the community after incarceration is a complex process that requires a coordinated, inter-agency and interdisciplinary approach. For justice-involved individuals facing serious or life-limiting illnesses, access to patient-centred palliative care is essential—not only for symptom management but also for ensuring dignity, continuity of care, and social support. This session will create a space to share how this is currently being done in our communities, identify existing gaps and challenges, and discuss innovative strategies to enhance access to care. Through shared experiential knowledge and collaboration, we will envision pathways that ensure justice-involved individuals receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
Presenters:
- Iridian Grenada, Advisory Consultant, Justice Reintegration
- Mar’yana Fisher, RN, PhD(c) Palliative Nurse Clinician
The intended audience for this session is healthcare providers and community organizations.
Other past sessions – please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you’re interested in session resources from the list below. Session recordings are available on YouTube.
2024
- Talk Living to Me: Experiencing Life-Limiting Illness Behind Bars – presenter: Mar’yana Fisher
Who can attend?
Health care professionals who are interested in learning more and sharing best practices around implementing essential conversations with patients and families as part of their practice. These essential conversations may be advance care planning, goals of care and / or Serious Illness Conversations (SICs).
Goal
To further the integration and spread of essential conversations into routine clinical practice throughout B.C.
Objectives
1) Provide ongoing learning opportunities for participants
2) Facilitate knowledge exchange, connectedness, resources sharing, and networking between participants
*This series was previously named Updates and Innovations: SIC Training for Facilitators & Clinicians. We have updated the series name to reflect that the essential conversations may be advance care planning, goals of care and / or Serious Illness Conversations (SICs).
Previous sessions & resources:
Please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you are interested in a pdf copy of presentation slides
Part of our Updated & Innovations in Essential Conversations for the Health Care Team ECHO Series.
Based on a qualitative study exploring English-speaking South Asian Canadians’ perspectives using the Serious Illness Conversation Guide (SICG), this session will examine how cultural norms—generational differences, family decision-making structures, physician-patient power dynamics—shape engagement in serious illness conversations and advance care planning. Participants will review key findings, examine recommended adaptations to SICG phrasing, and walk through practical strategies to deliver culturally safe, values-aligned conversations in clinical practice.
Presenters: Dr. Amrish Joshi, MBBS, MSc. Pal Med, LLM, CCFP (PC), FCFP, FRCPC, Medical Lead for QI, Richmond CoC. Palliative MD, Richmond Integrated Hospice Palliative Care Program. Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC Division of Palliative Medicine.
Lara Musa, RN, MPHMSN, CHPCN(C), Palliative Nurse Educator Richmond Integrated Hospice-Palliative Care Team
Monica Kelly, Lead, Goals of Care Support Team, Vancouver Coastal Health
Dr. Sukaina Kara, Palliative Physician, Fraser Health Lara Musa, Regional Clinical Educator, Vancouver Coastal Health Richmond Professional Practice
Session Resources
- Session summary
- YouTube recording
Join us to learn about a practical, evidence-based tool enabling clinicians to have more, better and earlier conversations with people. Presenters will share about the Serious Illness Conversation Program (SICP) Implementation toolkit pilot within a rural community in Interior Health. We will share how this toolkit was developed to support identifying barriers and facilitators to SICP implementation and lessons learned from this pilot that can be applied to other care settings and regions.
Presenters: Laura Finkler-Kemeny, RN Clinical Lead, Serious Illness Communication, BC Centre for Palliative Care and Grace Hu, MPH Research Coordinator, BC Centre for Palliative Care
Session resources
- Session summary notes
- Session recording: YouTube
Advance care planning can be more complex with adults who have cognitive or communication differences. Understanding concepts of inclusion, competency and a model of shared decision making can be helpful for the clinician in supporting care planning and medical directives that align with the individuals wishes. This talk also explores strategies employed in pediatrics where surrogate decision making and family voice can augment and support the patient in these essential conversation.
Session objectives:
- Review the definition of serious illness and the zone of health that can guide advance care planning with seriously ill young adults with cognitive / communication impairments.
- Discuss issues of inclusion, competency, shared-decision making
- Discuss the serious illness conversation guide – pediatrics and application of this to this population
Presenter: Camara van Breemen, MN, Nurse Practitioner (F), Director, Community Care and Provincial Outreach
Nurse Practitioner Team Lead
Canucks Place Children’s Hospice
Session resources
- Session recording: YouTube
- Session summary notes: Frailty & Dementia ECHO session Apr 17, 2025 summary
- Dementia Booklet
- Frailty Roadmap for Family
For seniors with life-limiting illness and their families, we need gentle but realistic conversations about their medical conditions, changes in their abilities and function, their quality of life, and goals of care. With a gentle approach to medical truth-telling, we can avoid potentially burdensome medical interventions, prevent unnecessary suffering, and empower families to help provide the best quality of life possible for their loved one. Dr Trevor Janz will model these conversations with families for us; about MOST status, CPR and ICU, feeding tubes in stroke and late dementia, falls and hip fracture, pneumonia, dehydration and bladder infections, and avoiding hospitalization
Presenters: Dr. Trevor Janz
Other past sessions – please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca if you’re interested in session resources from the list below. Session recordings are available on YouTube.
2024
- Culturally Safe ACP – presenters: Dr. Amrish Joshi & Lara Musa, RN.
- Facilitators & Barriers of SICP Implementation: A knowledge translation approach – presenter: Laura Finkler-Kemeny, RN
- Culturally Sensitive Care for the Chinese community – presenter: Dr. Kelvin Lou
- Integrating Essential Conversations in LTC: Perspectives from FH – presenters: Laura Gordon, Nick Petropolis, Gita Rafiee
- BCEHS Approach to essential conversations – presenter: Stuart Woolley
2023
- Experience from QI project attempting to bring SIC to the dialysis unit using an interprofessional lens – presenter: Dr. Christine Jones
- Essential Conversations: Talking to parents whose seriously ill adult child cannot speak for themselves – presenter: Camara Van Breemen MN, Nurse Practitioner (F)
- Hearing What Matters: Early learnings about GOC conversations with people experiencing structural inequalities – presenters: Wallace Robertson & Umilla Stead panelists: Ally Colbourne & Doris Lee Prest
Please note: Available resources for each session may vary. Please contact echo@bc-cpc.ca to inquiry about resources from a certain session or series
