Palliative Care ECHO – Past Sessions and Resources

Here are the past Palliative Care ECHO sessions we have hosted. You can access the related resources by clicking through on the sessions that interest you.

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:
Session Resources:

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is 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.

Currently, we ask people through a medical lens to tell us about their advanced care plan and what they want as they move towards death. This can cause stress and uncertainty, especially when death is not imminent. Instead, by connecting earlier through curiosity (asking What Matters To You), we can build trust. Through listening, we can use our understanding to guide someone’s health journey to best fit their needs and wants. Come join the conversation!

Presenter:

  • Dr. Greg Andreas and Jared Basil

Logo of Project ECHO, Pallium Canada & BCCPC

Session Resources:

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is 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.

In this session we will learn about how the Social Prescribing Program at Chilliwack Community Services, through the Discharge Project, provides essential support to seniors post-hospital discharge by addressing isolation, meal access, and emotional needs, thus alleviating pressure on the healthcare system. This was made possible through efficient collaboration between multiple non-profits and Fraser Health.

Presenter:

  • Leila Reshid, Seniors Community Connector Chilliwack Community Services

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Session resources:

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is 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.

This session we will learn about Wind Phones and how they provide a space for people who are grieving to connect and talk to those they are missing. We will hear from local BC organizations who have set up Wind Phones. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and share.

Presenters:

  • Brittany Borean, Bereavement Services Coordinator – Youth and Young Adults Program, Crossroads Hospice Society
  • Heather Fraser, Operations Manager, Oceanside Hospice Society

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Session Resources:
  • The recording of the session is available on BCCPC’s YouTube page: HERE

 

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is 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.

In this session, museum educator, Kim Gough will share highlights of her research into museum outreach programs and their impact on the wellbeing of seniors. We will also look closely at the Museum Mystery Suitcase outreach kit and model how it is used

Presenter: Kim Gough, Learning Program Developer, Royal BC Museum

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Session Resources:

 

This session is a cross-over of our All Together and Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Presenters: Melody Jobse, Community Engagement Lead, Public Health Initiatives at BC Centre for Palliative Care

If not you, who would speak for on your behalf if you were unable to speak for yourself? This session will explore how Advance Care Planning, a medical decision-making behavior, can affect patient and family caregivers on their particular grief trajectories while experiencing a serious illness and end of life journey.

There will be an educational presentation, discussion with those with lived experience, and Q&A. Poster you can print and share linked here.

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Session Resources

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is 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.

An interactive learning to explore the opportunities of advance care planning and serious illness conversations with clients, families, in community and healthcare settings. Discover the impact these crucial conversations can have on the quality of life for all persons, particularly those who live with a serious, life-threatening diagnosis.

Presenters: Kathleen Yue, Director of Strategic Initiatives, BC Centre for Palliative Care and Melody Jobse, Community Engagement Lead, BC Centre for Palliative Care

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Session Resources:

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is 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.

Join us as Meghan Derkach shares her passion about creating ‘aging-in-place’ community where persons of all ages can access health and personal care supports in their rural community setting. Though layered with complexities, Cherryville is seeing the difference that a Compassionate Communities model is having to support its residents, particularly those who are living with serious, and life limiting illnesses.

Logo of Project ECHO, Pallium Canada & BCCPC

Session Resources:

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is open to Health Care Providers, Volunteers, Volunteer lead organisations, Community Groups, and individuals looking to be inspired by and learn from others developing compassionate communities. Join Cari Randa-Beaulieu as she introduces the “Dementia-Inclusive Spaces for Community Access, Participation, and Engagement (DemSCAPE)” study, which aims to identify spatial and temporal patterns in activities outside home by people living with dementia, and ways in which the neighbourhood built environment affects mobility and social participation. This session will be interactive with breakout rooms following Cari’s presentation.

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Session Resources:

Research has shown that people around the world regularly consult doctors for problems that are primarily non-medical. In this session Simon Anderson, Research Assistant, BC Centre for Palliative Care will present how social prescribing can be a means to connect patients to a range of non-clinical support services in the community. Participants will be given scenarios to discuss how they would/could apply social prescribing in various settings

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Session Resources:

All Together, a compassionate communities initiative, is relaunching it ECHO series this fall.  Open to everyone interesting in learning more these sessions are for Health Care Providers, Volunteers, Volunteer lead organisations, Community Groups, and individuals looking to be inspired by and learn from others developing compassionate communities.

In this session we welcomed Connie Stam from Compassionate Neighbourhood Health Partners Society and Nancy McPhee from Galiano Health Care Society who shared how the programs they work with are compassionate communities at work. There will be opportunity throughout the session for discussion and questions for our presenters.

Logo of Project ECHO, Pallium Canada & BCCPC

This session we explored the concept and practice of compassionate communities as captured in Dr. Julian Abel’s book The Compassion Project. Together we unpacked key elements of this public health approach to palliative care that is bringing significant health outcome improvements for individuals in communities around the globe.

Resources:

Logo of Project ECHO, Pallium Canada & BCCPC

Overall Learning Objective:

Participants will gain knowledge through access to specialty clinical experts, an inter-professional network, and a practice community to support the delivery of best-practice care to optimize comfort for pediatric patients with a serious illness and medical complexity.  Serious illness is defined as a condition that carries a high-risk of mortality in childhood that negatively impacts a child’s daily function, quality of life, or excessively stresses their parents / caregivers (Ariadne Labs. Inc., (2012).

Dates

April-November 2021

Past Sessions & Resources

Access session resources here (password required). Email echo@bc-cpc.ca to request password if you do not have access. If you attended a session you would have been emailed a password at that time.

  

Overall Learning Objective:

To improve evidence-informed psychosocial care for people affected by advancing life- limiting conditions by providing increased access to education, mentorship and peer support for B.C. psychosocial palliative care providers, specifically Social Workers, Counsellors and Spiritual Health Practitioners.

Dates

January to June 2020

Past Sessions list

Email echo@bc-cpc.ca to request resources

Start
February 7, 2020 8:00 am
End
February 7, 2020 9:00 am

 

Presenter

ECHO planning team (Kathleen Yue, Marney Thompson, Mary Coleman) 

Competency
Domain 7 –Professional and ethical practice

When appropriate for role, engages in quality improvement, research and knowledge translation to advance practice of self and others; bringing a psychosocial perspective. 

Participants will understand their current state of palliative competency by completing a self-assessment of their practice using the Self-assessment tool for Specialist-FEW Social workers and Counsellors (BC Centre for Palliative Care), Participants will be able to describe the format and process of an ECHO, Participants and ECHO leaders will have a common understanding of expectations for the community of practice by creating a Community Covenant, The members of the ECHO community of practice will begin to establish connection 

Start
March 6, 2020 8:00 am
End
March 6, 2020 9:30 am

Presenter:

Tammy Dyson (MSW, RCSW, Leader, (MAiD) Fraser Health) 

Competency – Domain 5 –Care planning and collaborative practice:

Explores MAiD-related feelings, worries and hopes with people and their family. 

Describe the context of MAiD including current legislation, Distinguish between Desire to Die statements and requests for MAiD, Identify areas for assessment with a request for MAiD, including the patient, family and self, Know how to contact MAiD coordinators in each health authority 

Start
March 27, 2020 8:00 am
End
March 27, 2020 9:00 am
Presenter – Wendy Wainwright & Kathleen Yue facilitated discussion 
Competency – Supporting each other to address Domain 7 –Professional and ethical practice.

If within role, provides education and support to enhance inter-professional team member’s resilience in partnership with organizational leadership. 

Participants will be aware of available resources related to providing psychosocial care and maintaining self-care during COVID-19 and where to locate them 

Start
April 3, 2020 8:00 am
End
April 3, 2020 9:30 am
Presenter – Mary Coleman (MSW, RSW, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice) 
Competency – Domain 4 –Comfort and quality of life.

Adapts care to address person’s fears and anxieties related to past trauma. 

Consider the connections between trauma informed practice and hospice palliative care, Learn a few key theories from trauma treatment that may apply in palliative settings, Understand how traumatic stress may present in the course of serious illness for patients, caregivers, and grievers, Identify appropriate assessment and interventions for role, setting, and trajectory 

Start
May 1, 2020 12:00 am
End
May 1, 2020 12:00 am
Presenter – Marney Thompson (Registered Clinical Counsellor, MA. Director of Psychosocial Services, Victoria Hospice)
Competencies –
  • Domain 6: Loss, grief and bereavement. Expert consultant regarding loss, grief and bereavement. Assesses complex grief reactions and situations, such as multiple loss, traumatic loss, and pre-existing vulnerabilities including mental illness and addiction, abuse and neglect.
  • Define and identify Complicated / Prolonged Grief and distinguish it from ‘normal’ grief,
  • Understand the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of CG,
  • Explore the theoretical orientations and basic interventions used in Complicated Grief Treatment(CGT)
Start
June 5, 2020 12:00 am
End
June 5, 2020 12:00 am
Presenter – Camara van Breemen (MN, CHPCN, Play Therapist, Nurse Practitioner(F), Canuck Place Children’s Hospice)
Competencies –
  • Domain 5: Comfort and quality of life. Provides developmentally appropriate non-pharmacological interventions within own expertise appropriate including: art, play therapy, and relaxation for relief of distress. Refers to other resources as needed.
  • Domain 6: Loss, grief and bereavement. Understands the characteristics and challenges of grieving for a child or youth. Provides counselling support or refers as appropriate.
  • Explore strategies to assist parents in sharing serious illness information with children,
  • Discuss issues related to connection between the seriously ill person and a child,
  • Review activities that may be helpful for children along the illness trajectory and at EOL
Start
June 26, 2020 12:00 am
End
June 26, 2020 12:00 am

Presenter – ECHO planning team

Competency –

  • Domain 7 –Professional and ethical practice -When appropriate for role, engages in quality improvement, research and knowledge translation to advance practice of self and others; bringing a psychosocial perspective.
  • Understand outcomes of the ECHO pilot, Provide feedback on next ECHO program,
  • Contribute to quality improvement and spread of innovation

  

Dates:

September 2020 – July 2021 Thursdays 

Focus:

To improve evidence-informed psychosocial care for people affected by advancing life- limiting conditions by providing increased access to education, mentorship and peer support for B.C. psychosocial palliative care providers, specifically Social Workers, Counsellors and Spiritual Health Practitioners.

Past Sessions list

Email echo@bc-cpc.ca to request resources

Start
June 24, 2020 12:00 am
End
June 24, 2020 12:00 am

Presenter – ECHO planning team

Competencies –

  • Domain 5 – Care planning & collaborative practice. Advocates for the role of the social worker/counsellor in responding to complex situations.
  • Understands and promotes bio-psychosocial perspective as integral to health and well-being, delivery of care, and goals and decision-making.
  • Challenges inter-professional team, health care organizations, and public attitudes regarding psychosocial needs of people with a life limiting illness.
  • Competencies – Domain 7 – Professional & ethical practice. When appropriate for role, engages in quality improvement, research and knowledge translation to advance practice of self and others, bringing a psychosocial perspective
  • Participants will be able to describe the format and process of an ECHO group.
  • Participants and ECHO leaders will have a common understanding of expectations for the community of practice by creating a Community Covenant.
  • Members of the ECHO community of practice will begin to establish connection through introduction to ECHO Team members, breakout session, and large group debrief
Start
October 29, 2020 12:00 am
End
October 29, 2020 12:00 am

Presenter – Anke Krey, Education and Research Project Facilitator, Victoria Hospice, and Wendy Wainwright, former Director of Clinical Services, Victoria Hospice

Competencies:

  • Domain 7 – Professional & ethical practice. When appropriate for role, engages in quality improvement, research and knowledge translation to advance practice of self and others, bringing a psychosocial perspective.
  • Educates others (teams, learners, systems, community) regarding psychosocial palliative care (PC) and palliative approach.
  • Takes leadership in policy, program development and delivery of psychosocial PC as appropriate for role. Identify “teachable moments” to educate (teams, learners, systems, community) and describe strategies to advocate for psychosocial PC and the palliative approach to advance practice of self and others.
  • Describe opportunities to engage and bring a psychosocial perspective to quality improvement, research, and knowledge translation.
  • Describe their role and responsibility in leadership in policy, program development and delivery of psychosocial PC
Start
November 26, 2020 12:00 am
End
November 26, 2020 12:00 am
Presenter – Frank Cohn, Jhevoi Melville, MSW, RSW, and Ayesha Sackey, all from VAST
Competencies
  • Domain 1 – Principles of PC & palliative approach. Promotes and supports the adaptation of palliative principles in all care settings through capacity building of other care providers/community partners as appropriate for role.
  • Domain 2 – Cultural safety & humility. Advocates for incorporation of the person’s and family’s cultural traditions, beliefs, expectations, and preferences into decision making, care planning and service delivery models. Advocates for changes in policy to facilitate incorporation of culture into care.
  • Domain 4 – Comfort & quality of life. Adapts care to address person’s fears and anxieties related to past trauma.
  • Domain 7 – Professional & ethical practice. Participates in community awareness and engagement activities to build understanding, capacity, and inclusion. Addresses micro, meso, and macro factors that influence PC (e.g., internal and external barriers, social determinants of health).
  • Domain 8 – Self care. Identifies team and organizational barriers and issues and works collaboratively to address them.
  • Promotes an organizational culture that is safe for expression of multiple perspectives and practicing within ambiguity.
  •  Define the concept of race as a social construct and identify the ways it is manifested systemically.
  • Describe how to Link PC practice to Anti-Racist practice through honouring our values and each other at the organizational level. Describe the barriers to responding to racism and identify how racism in the workplace impacts individual staff, clients, client service, and organizational culture.
  • Describe how to respond competently to racial comments, behaviours or policies in the workplace setting through a stance of cultural humility (compassionate, reflective, non-judgmental).
  • Develop a deeper understanding of intersectionality, privilege, and marginalization.
  • Describe how to advocate against racist and discriminatory remarks and systems.
  • Understand and describe how end of life circumstances present challenges and opportunities in cultural understandings of “Quality of Life”.
Start
January 28, 2021 12:00 am
End
January 28, 2021 12:00 am
Presenter – Frank Cohn, Jhevoi Melville, MSW, RSW, and Ayesha Sackey, all from VAST
  • Competencies – Domain 1 – Principles of PC & palliative approach. Promotes and supports the adaptation of palliative principles in all care settings through capacity building of other care providers/community partners as appropriate for role.
  • Domain 2 – Cultural safety & humility. Advocates for incorporation of the person’s and family’s cultural traditions, beliefs, expectations, and preferences into decision making, care planning and service delivery models.
  • Advocates for changes in policy to facilitate incorporation of culture into care.
  • Domain 4 – Comfort & quality of life. Adapts care to address person’s fears and anxieties related to past trauma.
  • Domain 7 – Professional & ethical practice. Participates in community awareness and engagement activities to build understanding, capacity, and inclusion. Addresses micro, meso, and macro factors that influence PC (e.g., internal and external barriers, social determinants of health).
  • Domain 8 – Self care. Identifies team and organizational barriers and issues and works collaboratively to address them. Promotes an organizational culture that is safe for expression of multiple perspectives and practicing within ambiguity.
  • Become aware of own level of Racism profile through use of self-assessment tools and anti-racism growth chart.
  • Become more comfortable with using anti-racism tools through application of ACTION tool to a case study. Describe how to respond competently to racial comments, behaviours, or policies in the workplace setting through a stance of cultural humility (compassionate, reflective, non-judgmental) in practice.
  • Describe the barriers to responding to racism and identify how racism in the workplace impacts individual staff, clients, client service, and organizational culture
Start
February 25, 2021 12:00 am
End
February 25, 2021 12:00 am
Presenter – Camara van Breemen, MN, CHPCN, Play Therapist, Nurse Practitioner(F), Canuck Place Children’s Hospice
Competencies –
  • Domain 1 – Principles of PC & palliative approach. Utilizes a holistic approach to care with awareness of how illness, death and bereavement impacts all aspects of person’s and family’s functioning.
  • Domain 2 – Cultural safety & humility. Facilitates expression and inclusion of the person’s and family’s values, beliefs, and wishes during declining health and bereavement.
  • Domain 3 – Communication. Facilitates different conversations with families and members of the inter-professional team. Understands how fatigue, weakness and imminent death may impact communication and helps person/family and inter-professional teams interpret other forms of communication (e.g., symbolic communication, gestures, facial expressions).
  • Domain 5 – Comfort & quality of life. Provides developmentally appropriate non-pharmacological interventions within own expertise appropriate including art, play therapy, and relaxation for relief of distress. Refers to other resources as needed.  Domain 6 – Loss, grief, and bereavement. Understands the characteristics and challenges of grieving for a child or youth. Provides counselling support or refers as appropriate.
  • Domain 8 – Self care. Understands and attends to the impact of death, dying, and bereavement on caregivers (self, family, team, professionals).
  • Describe strategies to assist parents/caregivers in sharing serious illness information appropriately with children
  • Describe issues and barriers related to connection between the seriously ill person and a child and how to address same
  • Describe activities and play therapy techniques that may be helpful for children along the illness trajectory and at EOL
Start
March 25, 2021 12:00 am
End
March 25, 2021 12:00 am
Presenter – Marney Thompson, RCC, MA, Director of Psychosocial Services, Victoria Hospice
Competencies –
  • Domain 1 – Principles of PC & palliative approach. Utilizes a holistic approach to care with awareness of how illness, death and bereavement impacts all aspects of person’s and family’s functioning.
  • Domain 3 – Communication. Provides the person and family/caregiver bereavement counselling and psychosocial education through evidence-based frameworks, if within role and expertise.
  • Domain 6: Loss, grief, & bereavement. Expert consultant regarding loss, grief, and bereavement. Assesses complex grief reactions and situations, such as multiple loss, traumatic loss, and pre-existing vulnerabilities including mental illness and addiction, abuse, and neglect.
  • Domain 8 – Self care. Understands and attends to the impact of death, dying and bereavement on caregivers (self, family, team, professionals).
  • Identify and define Prolonged Grief and distinguish it from ‘normal’ grief
  • Understand and describe the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of Prolonged Grief
  • Discuss and describe the theoretical orientations and basic interventions used in Complicated Grief Treatment (CGT)
Start
April 29, 2021 12:00 am
End
April 29, 2021 12:00 am
Presenter – First Nations Elder Bruce Robinson, Lexi Fisher, BSW, RSW, and Leah Walker, BSW, RSW, all with Kilala Lelum
Competencies –
  • Domain 2 – Cultural safety & humility. Advocates for incorporation of the person’s and family’s cultural traditions, beliefs, expectations, and preferences into decision making, care planning, and service delivery models.
  • Facilitates expression and inclusion of the person’s and family’s values, beliefs, and wishes during declining health and bereavement.
  • Advocates for changes in policy to facilitate incorporation of culture into care.
  • Domain 3 – Communication. Provides support, mediation, and advocacy in exploring and clarifying treatment goals and care planning.
  • Domain 4 – Comfort & quality of life. Adapts care to address persons fears and anxieties related to past trauma.
  • Understands, educates, and works with the person/family and inter-professional team about the interplay of spiritual, emotional, social, cognitive, and physical aspects of the person’s past experiences on their current quality of life.
  • Domain 7 – Professional & ethical practice. Advocates at a system and community level
  • Describe strategies and approaches people can use in their clinical practice to honour and value the stories of Indigenous peoples in a respectful way that builds trusting relationship and allyship, fosters connections, and allows Indigenous voices to be heard at all stages of life
Start
May 27, 2021 12:00 am
End
May 27, 2021 12:00 am
Presenter – Tammy Dyson, MSW, RCSW, Lead, Medical Assistance in Dying, Fraser Health
Competencies –
  • Domain 5 – Care planning & collaborative practice. Explores MAiD-related feelings, worries, and hopes with people and their family. May provide leadership in case reviews and debriefings.
  • Leads/facilitates inter-professional team and family meetings to plan care that addresses complex psychosocial issues. Advocates for the role of the social worker/counsellor in responding to complex situations.
  • Domain 7 – Professional & ethical practice. Facilitates inter-professional team reflection to identify group values and ethical practices, and the impact of these on people, families, and the team
  • Describe the context of MAiD including changes with new legislation, Bill C-7
  • Distinguish between desire to die statements and requests for MAiD and describe strategies for responding appropriately to each  Identify areas for assessment with a request for MAiD, including the patient, family, and staff
  • Understand how to contact MAiD co-ordinators in each health authority  Understand where to look for additional information and resources on MAiD
Start
June 24, 2021 12:00 am
End
June 24, 2021 12:00 am
Presenter – First Nations Elder Bruce Robinson, Lexi Fisher, BSW, RSW, and Leah Walker, BSW, RSW, all with Kilala Lelum
Competencies –
  • Domain 2 – Cultural safety & humility. Advocates for incorporation of the person’s and family’s cultural traditions, beliefs, expectations, and preferences into decision making, care planning, and service delivery models.
  • Facilitates expression and inclusion of the person’s and family’s values, beliefs, and wishes during declining health and bereavement. Advocates for changes in policy to facilitate incorporation of culture into care.
  • Domain 3 – Communication. Provides support, mediation, and advocacy in exploring and clarifying treatment goals and care planning.
  • Domain 4 – Comfort & quality of life. Adapts care to address persons fears and anxieties related to past trauma.
  • Understands, educates, and works with the person/family and inter-professional team about the interplay of spiritual, emotional, social, cognitive, and physical aspects of the person’s past experiences on their current quality of life.
  • Describe strategies for persons in a helping role to assist them in reconciling working within a healthcare system that has and continues to do significant harm to Indigenous peoples and their way of being
  • Describe strategies and approaches people can use in their clinical practice to recognize and acknowledge both the devastating experiences of indigenous peoples both within and outside the healthcare system and the impact of these experiences on their decision-making around access to and receiving end of life care
  • Describe strategies and approaches people can use in their clinical practice to honour and value the stories of Indigenous peoples in a respectful way that builds trusting relationships and allyship, fosters connections, and allows Indigenous voices to be heard at all stages of life
Start
July 29, 2021 12:00 am
End
July 29, 2021 12:00 am
Presenter – ECHO Leadership Team
Competencies –
  • Domain 7 – Professional & ethical practice. Engages in quality improvement, research and knowledge translation to advance practice of self and others; bringing a psychosocial perspective.
  • Domain 8 – Self care. Provide education and support to enhance inter-professional team members’ resilience in partnership with organizational leadership.
  • Promotes an organizational culture that is safe for expression of multiple perspectives and practicing within ambiguity.
  • Understand outcomes of the Current ECHO cohort group
  • Provide feedback on format, structure, composition, and content of current and next ECHO cohort group
  • Contribute to quality improvement and spread of innovation in PC practice through sharing of personal and professional experiences as an active member of an ECHO community of practice

  

Dates:

January – November 2022

Focus:

Co-created by and for psychosocial health care providers, the latest offering of the Palliative Care ECHO project-BC Hub is a year-long program.  The three themes of Grief and Loss, Spirituality, and Ethical Dilemmas in  Palliative Care will guide the content of the session (nine in total) beginning in January.

This virtual knowledge-sharing network is intended for individuals actively working in a clinical role providing care to adults, children and families who are affected by advancing life-limiting conditions such as Social Workers, Counsellors, Music Therapists, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, and Spiritual Health Practitioners.

Past Sessions list

Email echo@bc-cpc.ca to request resources

Psychosocial Cohort 3: Grief and Loss Session Topic - "Supporting the Bereaved After a Substance Use-Related Death: Building Hope and Resilience in Grief" Heidi Wigmore, Victoria Hospice Bereavement Counsellor and RCC Jennifer Howard, Moms Stop the Harm
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Grief and Loss Session Topic - "The Embodied Experience of Young Adults and Adolescents Living with Serious Illness" Andrea Johnson, MSW/RSW Canuck Place Counseling and Bereavement Services
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Grief and Loss Session Topic - “Supporting Attachment Needs of Grieving Children – Exploring The role of health care providers with Parents and Caregivers” Emily Watson, MSW/RSW Canuck Place Counseling and Bereavement Services Mary Coleman, MSW/RSW Vancouver Coastal and Canuck Place Children's Hospice
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Spirituality Session Topic - "Responding to Existential Distress at End of Life Through Logotherapy" Kathryn Calzavara, M.Div., Hons. B.A. Palliative Spiritual Health Practitioner Fraser Health Authority North CANCELLED
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Spirituality Session Topic - "Shattered by grief: Supporting the search for meaning and sense of self in the chaos" Linda Wollschlaeger-Fischer Manager of Counselling and Bereavement Services Canuck Place Children's Hospice
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Spirituality Session Topic - "Shattered by grief: Supporting the search for meaning and sense of self in the chaos" Linda Wollschlaeger-Fischer Manager of Counselling and Bereavement Services Canuck Place Children's Hospice
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Ethical Dilemmas in Palliative Care Session Topic - "Broadening the Scope of Ethics in Palliative Care: Shifting towards narrative and relational paradigms" Alexandra Olmos Perez PHSA Ethics Session 1: September 16th, 2022, 9am- 10:00 am The first session titled “Broadening the Scope of Ethics in Palliative Care:
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Ethical Dilemmas in Palliative Care Session Topic - "Creating a Safe Moral Space – The Informed Language of Ethics" ECHO Hub team Session 2: October 28st, 2022, 9am-10:00 am Session two will be presented by the ECHO Hub team mentor, Michele Martin from Fraser Health, discussing the
Psychosocial Cohort 3: Ethical Dilemmas in Palliative Care Session Topic - Ethical Decision Making Session 3: October 28st, 2022, 9am-10:00 am For this final session on the theme, we invite you to share your experiences of ethical decision-making, and moral distress. Participants will share scenarios they've encountered in their work
Overall Learning Objective:

The sessions aim to support health care providers incorporate the palliative approach to care into their daily practice.

Dates

Sept – Dec 2022
Feb – May 2023
Sept – Nov 2023
Feb – March 2024

Past Sessions & Resources

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.

Logo of Project ECHO, Pallium Canada & BCCPC

Session resources

Following the Domain 7 module on Learning Hub, this session introduces common ethical issues in end-of-life care. Learners will have the opportunity to practice ethical decision making by discussing a case study.

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Session resources

Following the Domain 6 module on Learning Hub, this session will address the assumption that loss, grief and bereavement are thought of as a “linear” experience. This session aims to help you identify that people experience grief differently and explore ways to support grief and loss for both patients and their families through a case study.

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Resources

Following the Domain 5 module on Learning Hub, this session learners will reflect on the importance of ensuring their care aligns with the patient’s goals of care. They will also be introduced to three key aspects of what a care plan for someone with a life-limiting illness should include and apply these to a case study.

Logo of Project ECHO, Pallium Canada & BCCPC

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

 

Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Pet loss can evoke profound grief, yet this disenfranchised loss offers inadequate recognition and support in comparison to traditional grief support frameworks. This session aims to shed light on the unique challenges of pet loss grief and the importance of nurturing partnerships between grief professionals to build on this support. We will also hear from individuals with lived experienced. Session participants will have the opportunity to ask question and engage with the presenters. Poster you can print and share linked here.

Presenter: Pam Bilusack, Executive Director at BC Bereavement Helpline/ BC Victims of Homicide

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources:

 

Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

This session will focus on the recent research that investigated bereavement in the context of homelessness and how best to improve the access and quality of support available. The people who conducted the 80 in-person interviews with those with lived experience will share their reflections on the experience and lessons learned. Poster you can print and share linked here.

Presenters: Joshua Black, PhD, Bereavement Initiative Manager, BCCPC and Stephanie Laing, MSW, RSW, Director of Operations at Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre

*Please note that this session is scheduled for 75 minutes*

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources

Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Presenter: Mary Coleman, MSW, RSW Clinical Practice Lead, Bereavement Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

Bereaved parents have a unique and complex experience of bereavement, requiring an understanding that adaptation and integration of this loss is an enduring process of continuing bonds and meaning reconstruction. The session will provide an overview of the particular ways bereaved parents work to express this to those around them including loved ones, larger social circles, peer support groups, and professionals. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with bereaved parents to hear their voices and reflections in an interactive forum. Poster you can print and share linked here.

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources

Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Presenter: Laurel Gillespie, MBA, CHE CEO Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association

This session will explore grief in the workplace following a significant death and the ways we can improve how workplaces support their employees. Poster you can print and share linked here.

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources:

Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Presenter: Trevor Josephson Clinical Counsellor, MC, RCC. Manager of Clinical Services, Peace Arch Hospice Society

This talk will explore aspects of teen grief after a loss such as attachment, identity, coping and meaning making as well as the specific programming offered at Peace Arch Hospice Society. Poster you can print and share linked here

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources:

 

This session is a cross-over of our All Together and Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Presenters: Melody Jobse, Community Engagement Lead, Public Health Initiatives at BC Centre for Palliative Care

If not you, who would speak for on your behalf if you were unable to speak for yourself? This session will explore how Advance Care Planning, a medical decision-making behavior, can affect patient and family caregivers on their particular grief trajectories while experiencing a serious illness and end of life journey.

There will be an educational presentation, discussion with those with lived experience, and Q&A. Poster you can print and share linked here.

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Session resources

Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Presenter: Dr. Michael Mak, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry Site Director, Undergraduate Education, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Transition to Practice Coordinator, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto Vice President – Clinical, Canadian Sleep Society.

In this session we will explore why sleep is important, how it can change after a loss, and the ways to improve it. Poster you can print and share linked here

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources:

Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series

Presenter: Joshua Black, PhD, Grief and Bereavement Researcher, Bereavement Initiative Manager BC Centre for Palliative Care, and host of the Grief Dreams Podcast. Join Joshua as he presents some of his research work around dreaming of the deceased. Following Joshua’s presentation there will be time for Q&A and then we will hear personal grief dream stories from those with lived experience. We look forward to learning together, and for participants to interact and share their experiences and knowledge.

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources

Join us in this session of our Grief and Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series as we welcome Pam Bilusack, Executive Director at BC Bereavement Helpline/ BC Victims of Homicide to share on Grief & Loss During the Holidays. Following Pam’s presentation will be time for Q&A and then we will hear personal stories from those with lived experience and how they found support navigating loss during the holidays. We look forward to learning together and for participants to interact and share their experiences and knowledge.

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources:

Session recording: YouTube recording link
Session resource page: 2023.11.22 Pregnancy & Infant Loss Session Resource links
Session summary notes: 2023.11.22 Session summary notes

Join us in this session of our Grief and Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series as we welcome Nancy Slinn, Metro Vancouver Empty Cradle Bereaved Parents Society to share on Pregnancy and Infant Loss – A Misunderstood Grief. Following Nancy’s presentation will be time for Q&A and then we will hear personal stories from those with lived experience and how they found support in their bereavement journeys. We look forward to learning together and for participants to interact and share their experiences and knowledge.

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources

Session recording: YouTube recording link
Session slides: 2023.10.19 Minecraft Kids Grief Program Presentation slides
Session resource page: 2023.10.19 Children’s Grief Session Resource links
Session summary notes: 2023.10.19 Session summary notes

In this session of our Grief and Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series we welcome Meaghan Jackson, Lumara Grief and Bereavement Care Society to share on a tool used for Children’s Grief. We look forward to learn together and for participants to interact and share their experiences and knowledge.

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources

Session recording: YouTube – Grief & Bereavement: Loss of a Pet 2023.09.19
Session summary: 2023.09.19 Grieving the Death of a Pet session summary

In this second session of our Grief and Bereavement Literacy ECHO Series we welcomed Jennifer Dacre, Palliative & Bereavement Services Manager at Chilliwack Hospice to share on Grieving the Death of a Pet

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Session Resources

Session summary notes – written summary of the session and discussion points
Session resource page – document with website links and resources shared by the session presenters and session attendees.
Session recording: Grief & Bereavement Literacy Series ECHO Session Aug 15, 2023: “Healing Hearts Support” – YouTube


On 
August 15th 
the BC Centre for Palliative Care launched our Grief and Bereavement Literacy Series with our first online session: Healing Hearts Support – Finding Hope and Resilience After a Substance Use Related Loss presented by Jennifer Howard, Program Manager at Moms Stop the Harm.

This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers.

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Why attend an ECHO session?

ECHO is an ideal combination of education, peer connection, and collaboration, fostering an “all teach, all learn” approach.  These sessions are designed to be a vehicle for learning and sharing your own experience, resourcefulness, and resilience.   

Sessions are via zoom and will be facilitated by a content expert who will guide you through a presentation on the topic and the remainder of the time spent in discussion.  

For information about other ECHO sessions visit our ECHO program webpage.

Focus:

Aligned with our existing competency frameworks for health care professionals, the volunteer competencies are organized under eight headings, or domains. No matter how you decide to operationalize the competencies in your volunteer program, they are designed to help you better recruit, screen and train hospice volunteers.  

The new volunteer competency framework was co-created with 18 representatives of hospice organizations from across BC, and was guided by key provincial and regional hospice palliative care partners and experts. 

This session will help you to consider how the document will be of benefit in settings other than hospices, such as long-term care or volunteerled community groups and organizations that support people effected with serious illness.  

Resources:

Competency Framework Document
Presentation Slide Deck
Presentation Summary Notes

Details

Learn about the BC Bereavement Action Plan recommendations that resulted from the knowledge users roundtable discussions on bereavement services in BC. Session is 1 hour with a presentation for the first 15min followed by interactive discussion.

Who can attend?
  •  Open to anyone wanting to learn more about the action plan recommendations for bereavement services in BC

Presenter: Joshua Black, PhD, Bereavement Initiative Manager at BC Centre for Palliative Care

Session Resources

Session recording: https://youtu.be/DdjBEPo33NE 
Session summary notes: July 25, 2023 Bereavement ECHO Session summary

Details

Learn about the research that the BC Centre for Palliative Care has completed on the impact of COVID-19 on bereavement in British Columbia. Session is 1 hour with a presentation for the first 15min followed by interactive discussion.

Who is the audience?
  • Open to anyone wanting to learn more about the impact of COVID-19 on bereavement

Presenter: Joshua Black, PhD, Bereavement Initiative Manager at BC Centre for Palliative Care

Session Resources

Session recording: https://youtu.be/8KNL7_h41mk 
Session summary notes: June 27, 2023 Session Summary

Dates

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021

Focus:

Throughout the pandemic, educators have had to scramble to modify in-person sessions to online. Most of the time, the best we could do was PowerPoint over Zoom. The downside was that learners could have the camera off and could be snoozing, not even in the room, or even walking the dog. On the upside, those living in rural and remote areas or those who don’t have time to leave their desk have had more, and more accessible, education opportunities. How to keep the good and lose the bad? 

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).

Some of the session materials and resources are linked in the session events below and for others that are not linked email echo@bc-cpc.ca

Previous session list:

Session Resources:

This session will focus on the learnings from a team in Fraser Health focusing on integrating a palliative approach to care in the Long Term Care (LTC) setting through a Quality Improvement (QI) approach. Dr. Laura Gordon and Dr. Nick Petropolis will share the barriers and facilitators they’ve encountered, and best strategies to help LTC teams engage in earlier, better, and more essential conversations

Presenters: Dr. Laura Gordon and Dr. Nick Petropolis

Part of our Updates & Innovations in Essential Conversations for the Health Care Team ECHO Series.

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Session Resources

Talking about serious illness in a culturally sensitive way can be challenging. In this talk, we will talk about ways to adapt our communication tools to improve communication and to promote culturally sensitive care.

Presenter: Dr. Kelvin Lou

Part of our Updates & Innovations in Essential Conversations for the Health Care Team ECHO Series.

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Session Resources

Part of our Updates & Innovations in Essential Conversations for the Health Care Team ECHO Series. Presenters: Laura Finkler-Kemeny RN, MSN Clinical Lead, Serious Illness Communication, BC Centre for Palliative Care

The Serious Illness Conversation Guide (SICG) is a validated, evidence-based tool that is known to improve experiences of clinicians, patients and caregivers while navigated a serious illness. Less is known about how to implement this guide into everyday practice, and about how to work with health organizations and leaders to integrate serious illness communication into workflows, policy and standard of practice. This session will explore the key components of what it takes to implement the Serious Illness Conversation Program and some of the barriers and enablers that clinicians and implementers may encounter along the way.

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Session Resources:

Part of our Updates & Innovations in Essential Conversations for the Health Care Team ECHO Series. Presenters: Dr. Amrish Joshi, Medical Lead for QI, Richmond CoC. Palliative MD, Richmond Integrated Hospice Palliative Care Program and Lara Musa, RN, Palliative Nurse Educator Richmond Integrated Hospice-Palliative Care Team.

Join Amrish and Lara as they share findings from a qualitative study conducted with members of the South Asian community in relation to Serious Illness Conversations. There will be an opportunity to discuss these findings and navigate cultural nuances when providing care.

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Session Resources

Session recording: “Hearing What Matters” SIC ECHO Session November 16, 2023 
Presentation slides: “Hearing What Matters” Nov 16 Presentation slides 
Session summary notes: “Hearing What Matters” – Nov 16 ECHO session summary notes

Building on previous work on serious illness conversations with patients experiencing structural vulnerabilities in hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health are partnering on a project supported by Healthcare Excellence Canada to learn best practices for having these conversation in a community setting. This session will begin with a brief background presentation on the project and will feature front line workers’ experiences with these conversations, and will include a discussion about how we can empower and include support workers as part of the team engaging in SIC conversations.

Session Presenters: Umilla Stead, Regional Lead, Palliative Approach to Care at VCH and Wallace Robinson, Lead for Advance Care Planning at PHC

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Session Resources

This is an online virtual one-hour live session presented by Camara van Breemen, MN, CHPCN(CP), Nurse Practitioner(F) Enhanced Community Care Lead at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. Hosted by the BC Centre for Palliative Care, as part of our “Updates and Innovations” ECHO Series: Serious Illness Conversation Training for Facilitators and Clinicians.

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Logo of Project ECHO, Pallium Canada & BCCPCSerious Illness Conversation Provincial Collaborative ECHO

Presenter: Dara Lewis RN
Clinical Educator for the Regional Palliative Approach to Care Education team (RPACE)
Vancouver Coastal Health

Many patients with serious illness are receiving treatments that may not align with their wishes; in some cases, these treatments may be futile or may cause unnecessary suffering. Serious Illness Conversations can lead to less aggressive treatment decisions, fewer hospitalizations, and improved quality of life. While many health care staff recognize the benefits of engaging patients and families in these conversations, few staff feel confident or competent in having these fulsome conversations.

Staff express numerous challenges in incorporating the SIC guide into practice, even after having received the training; these challenges include the inability to remember the questions during patient encounters, lack of timely access to the guide at point of care, lack of time to engage in the conversation, and lack of routine workflows or prompts that normalize this as part of their care.

An educational exercise, entitled the Two Question Challenge, was devised at Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) to engage the entire interdisciplinary team in asking SIC questions of their patients and families. SIC mentors supported the interdisciplinary team to choose at least two questions from a selection of nine SIC questions. They were asked to pose these questions of a patient or family member throughout their shift, and then asked to document their conversations in a centralized Goals of Care location within the patient’s chart.

Through the personal selection of the SIC questions and the ownership of just a few questions, staff gained both confidence and competence in engaging patients in these conversations. Staff felt they could remember these one or two questions for future care encounters. Both staff and patients found these conversations to be meaningful and impactful. The exercise also resulted in significantly increased goals of care documentation in the desired and centralized location within the chart.

The exercise has been trialed across seven medical and surgical units from three different acute care sites. Further applicability to non-acute settings, such as long-term care or community health units, could be explored in the future.

 

Serious Illness Conversation Provincial Collaborative ECHO
Session Topic: SIC and Coaching Mentoring Strategies

Cari Borenko, BA BSW RSW MHS
Lead, Advance Care Planning, Fraser Health Authority

Andrew Saunderson, BSW, MSW, RSW
Social Worker, Advance Care Planning, Fraser Health Authority

The health care system and its culture is reactionary and too often downstream focused. As health care providers we are attune to identifying a problem and then finding a way to address and solve the issue. We then move onto identifying the next problem, and the cycle repeats itself. Handling one problem after another leaves us stuck in an emergent response cycle, while also overlooking upstream interventions.

In response, Fraser Health has developed and implemented a strategic systems improvement model for advance care planning and serious illness processes. This approach helps ensure efficiency while prioritizing systems change at the macro level. It embeds advance care planning and serious illness conversations into existing systems and workflows and leads to sustainable improvements. The strategy includes:
• Systems Assessment
• Education
• Recommendations and Improvement
• Coaching and Consultation
• Outcome Measuring

This interactive session will engage the audience as we explore relevant tools and resources that guide our systems work, discuss our revised education process that prioritize systems and workflow redesign, and review how we embed coaching throughout all of our work.

Serious Illness Conversation Provincial Collaborative ECHO
Session Topic: SIC and Cultural Safety

Nicole Wikjord, RN, MSN, CHPCN (C)
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Chronic Conditions and Serious Illness
First Nations Health Authority

Elizabeth Beddard-Huber, RN, MSN, CHPCN(C)
Clinical Lead Serious Illness Conversations,
BC Centre for Palliative Care

By the end of the session the participants will:

  • Review definitions of cultural safety and cultural humility
  • Understand why cultural safety and humility are essential to Serious Illness Conversations
  • Be aware of the SICG- adapted that was co-developed with FNHA and BCCPC
  • Understand how preparing for the SIC is important to provide culturally safer care

This ECHO will review the First Nations Health Authority definitions of cultural safety and cultural humility, to better understand why these are important to SIC.  The participants will learn about the SICG- adapted, which was co- developed with FNHA and BCCPC, based on feedback from health care providers and First Nations community members.  The adapted tool will be further explored, with emphasis on the ‘preparing’ for SIC and why this pre- conversation is important to provide culturally safer care.

Serious Illness Conversation Provincial Collaborative ECHO
Session Topic: SIC in a Cancer Setting

Antony Porcino
BC Cancer

Serious Illness Conversation Provincial Collaborative ECHO
Session Topic: SIC and Disenfranchised Populations: The importance of utilizing a trauma-informed, trust building approach for Serious Illness Conversations with Structurally Vulnerable/Disenfranchised Populations​​

Wallace Robinson, MSW RSW
Leader for Advance Care Planning, Providence Health Care

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

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