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
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
- Essential Conversations with Peter and Joe
- Exploring the role and impact of Advance Care Planning on patient, family and caregiver grief and bereavement (cross-over with Grief & Bereavement Literacy series)
- Go Grey – Why museum resources are good for the well-being of seniors
- Wind Phones: Transcending Time and Space, Keeping Relationships in Place
2023
- Compassion Matters
- Compassionate Communities: Together for Palliative Care
- Prescriptions beyond the pharmacy: The social prescribing approach to wellbeing
- Developing Dementia-Inclusive Spaces for Community Access, Participation, and Engagement (DemSCAPE)
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 4 & 5 Sessions & Resources
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
- 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.
Session Resources:
- Session recording: YouTube
- Session summary notes
Dallas Shirley will share from her years of experience supporting families with grief and loss, ways to use play therapy to support the grieving process. Following the presentation t here will be opportunity to interact and ask questions. Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Dallas Shirley, RCC, BC Registered Play Therapist
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: 2024.10.24. The Next Day: What Happens After Someone Dies
- Session recording: YouTube recording
Part of our Grief & Bereavement Literacy ECHO series
After someone dies they are transferred into the care of the entirely privatised BC deathcare system. In this session, Emily from DeathCare BC will take participants through the initial decisions and journey of those early days after death. Emily believes that knowing the details of what happens next is essential to providing supportive care to survivors in early bereavement.
Poster you can print and share linked here.
Presenter: Emily Bootle, Founder of DeathCare 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
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.
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
- Sleep After Loss
- Exploring the role and impact of Advance Care Planning on patient, family and caregiver grief and bereavement (cross-over session with All Together series)
- Teen Grief: Responding, Rebuilding and Relearning
- Grief in the Workplace
- You Are Missing From Me: the Lifelong Grief of Bereaved Parents
- Bereavement in the Context of Homelessness
2023
- The Impact of Covid on Bereavement in BC
- How to Best Support Bereaved People in Post COVID Era: Provincial Evidence-Informed Recommendations by Knowledge Users in BC
- Healing Hearts Support – Finding Hope and Resilience After a Substance Use Related Loss
- Grieving the Death of a Pet
- Children’s Grief – Minecraft Kids Grief Program
- Pregnancy and Infant Loss – A Misunderstood Grief
- Grief and Loss During the Holidays
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 recording: YouTube
- Session summary notes: 2024.11.13 Experiencing life-limiting illness behind bars ECHO
Complex socio-political causes continue to increase the carceral population locally and globally, with more individuals aging and dying in prisons. Despite international recognition of the importance of palliative care as a shared universal right, a health equity gap exists between the general and carceral populations in Canada. With growing numbers of aging people in custody and their disproportionate risk of adverse health outcomes, it is crucial to understand what care services are available to those diagnosed with life-limiting illnesses and, for those who are dying, to understand how their palliative care needs are met. Currently, little is known from a Canadian perspective about how individuals in custody or under supervision in the community receive care when diagnosed with cancer or other life-limiting illnesses.
Presenter:
Mar’yana Fisher, RN, MNS, PhD student
Palliative Nurse Clinician
The intended audience for this session is healthcare providers.
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.
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
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
Session Resources
- Session recording: YouTube
- Session summary notes
This session will explore the vital role paramedics in British Columbia play in supporting patients and their families during palliative emergencies. We’ll discuss strategies for effective communication and collaboration, enhancing care delivery at critical moments. Your participation will contribute to a deeper understanding of how we can improve palliative care outcomes together.
Presenters: Stuart Woolley
Part of our Updates & Innovations in Essential Conversations for the Health Care Team ECHO Series.
Session Resources:
- Session recording: YouTube
- Summary notes: Summary-Note-Integrating-Essential-Conversations-in-LTC-Perspectives-from-FH.pdf (bc-cpc.ca)
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.
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
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
