BC Centre for Palliative Care

The New Normal of Hospice Palliative Care in a Pandemic World - HPCO Conference
2021-04-20 05:00 - 12:00, 2021-04-19 05:00 - 13:15, 2021-04-18 05:00 - 13:00 (America/Vancouver)
Event hosted by: Hospice Palliative Care Ontario (HPCO)
Event Cost:
HPCO Member Rate: Full Conference: $500
Non-Member Rate: Full Conference: $580
The non-member rate of $580 includes a one-year individual membership to Hospice Palliative Care Ontario.
Note: There is no one day registration option.
Student (Full-time): Full Conference: $400
More details on conference costs can be found here
Event description:
Join us virtually for HPCO’s 2021 Annual Conference, The New Normal of Hospice Palliative Care in a Pandemic World, Sunday, April 18 to Tuesday, April 20, 2021. We look forward to welcoming you and delivering a high value, interactive experience; with a great mix of keynote speakers, engagement with peer-led workshop and oral paper presentations, industry insights and shared moments networking with peers.
Event date and time:
April 18th 5am-1pm PST
April 19th 5am-1:15pm PST
April 20th 5am-12pm PST
For more details and to register click here

Conversation Event (Adult Cognitive Wellness Centre)
2021-04-19 10:30 - 12:00 | online
To register
Call: (604) 655-0535
Email: info@CognitiveWellness.ca
(online)

Every Year April 16th marks Advance Care Planning Day in Canada
2021-04-16 18:00 - 20:00
Description borrowed from Advancecareplanning.ca:
Advance Care Planning is the process of thinking and talking about your wishes, values, and preferences for your future care in the event you are unable to speak for yourself. Decide who would speak for you — choose your Substitute Decision Maker.
On Advance Care Planning Day, Canadians are encouraged to set aside time between 6-8 p.m. to talk openly with family, friends and loved ones. Tell them what would be most important to you in a health care emergency. Tell them what brings you joy. Above all, tell them about your values and wishes.

Find out more: Advance Care Planning Information

An Important Conversation about Young Families' Needs
2021-04-16 16:00 - 17:00
Event hosted by: New West Hospice Society
Advance Care Planning for Young Families. What matters to you and your family? Let’s talk.
Join Heather Hansen and Andrew Saunderson, Social Workers, in a dialogue.
Live streaming on NWHS’s Facebook Page. Event linked here

Public Policy & Advocacy for Serious Illness Care
2021-04-15 09:00 - 10:00
Event hosted by: Ariadne Labs
Join us for a panel discussion about the intersection of serious illness care, palliative care, advanced care planning, and public policy. Moderator, Jane Conrad, Serious Illness Care Ambassador and Patient Advocate, will share her experience as a caregiver and patient advocate. Panelists Paul Tatum and Phil Rogers will share their experience as leaders in Palliative Care-related Public Policy. Together, they will discuss the landscape of policy and advocacy for serious illness care to inform the audience about how policy impacts clinical care and patient experience, and strategies to get involved in advocacy at various levels.
(Please note this seminar is hosted out of the United States and therefor some information will be different than what exists in BC)
To register for this event click here
To become a member of this Community of Practice click here

Children's grief and bereavement certificate
2021-04-14 09:00 - 16:00
Event hosted by: Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
Dates: April 14, 21, 28, May 5 and 12, 2021 9am-4pm
Facilitators: Andrea Warnick, RN, MA, RP, Liana Lowenstein, MSW, RSW, CPT-S, Lysa Toye, MSW, RSW, and (Rev.) Andrew Blake, RP
This training is suitable for: Any professional or volunteer who is in a position to influence the support received by a grieving child. This includes front-line workers and volunteers such as medical professionals, educators, clergy, social workers, administrators, residential workers, counsellors, funeral service providers and hospice volunteers.
Overview: Grief is a confusing and isolating experience for any person, old or young. Children’s grief, however, differs considerably from adult grief, resulting in the needs of grieving children often being overlooked or misunderstood. This can have a profound impact on the social and emotional development of a child. Caregivers, including the most skilled professionals, often feel helpless when supporting children through the death of someone close to them.
The children’s grief and bereavement certificate program explores the roots of our cultural discomfort with the topic of children and death and exposes common myths and misconceptions. This certificate program aims to equip you with skills to provide support to children, youth and families grieving the dying or death of someone they care about. Adults cannot change the reality of a death occurring in a child’s life, but with the right tools they can play a powerful role in shaping the story of the child’s grief experience and therefore help the child thrive in life.
The individual webinars may be taken separate from the certificate program as stand-alone trainings; however, all five webinars must be completed to obtain the certificate.
To register for webinar series or an individual event click here
To save 10% use promo code: CHPCA10

Bereavement Support Group
2021-04-06 18:30 - 20:00
Event hosted by: NEW WEST HOSPICE SOCIETY
Start date: April 6, 2021 for 8 weeks
To register, please contact bereavement@newwesthospice.ca or call 236-333-5150

Supporting patients and family in the ICU: When their distress and grief hits close to home
2021-04-07 17:30 - 18:30
Event hosted by: Canadian Virtual Hospice
Canadian Virtual Hospice invites you to a free webinar discussion with Dr. James Downer, MD and Dr. Amanda Lee Roze des Ordons, MD, FRCPC, MMEd about managing grief and stress in the ICU when it hits too close to home. Dr. David Henderson, MD, CCFP(PC) is the moderator.
To register please click here

CPCNA Town Hall: Before all else Fails-- Laugh!
2021-04-07 16:00 - 17:00
Event hosted by: Canadian Palliative Care Nursing Association (CPCNA)
Michelle O’Rourke RN and Kath Murray RN will lead us in a discussion about how humour helps us cope in difficult and challenging times. There will be a brief presentation followed by group sharing and discussion. You can join in or simply listen to the conversation.
To register click here

Part 2: Learn How to Facilitate Well-Being Debriefings within Your Organization
2021-04-01 09:00 - 10:00
The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a stunning toll on the emotional well-being of health care workers. Many of us are looking for proven strategies to mitigate the natural stress, empathy strain, and moral distress that we are experiencing.
Peer-facilitated well-being debriefings are an evidence-based way to provide support to health care workers; they increase social support, decrease feelings of isolation, and provide opportunities to learn from each other about coping with difficult issues. The result: positive impact on well-being, personal resiliency, improved patient care, and reduced feelings of burnout.
In this two-part webinar series, Vickie Leff, LCSW, will train attendees to be peer facilitators for well-being debriefings, providing the skills needed to bring this technique to their organizations. In part one, attendees learned the benefit of peer-facilitated well-being debriefings; the format of these conversations; how to secure buy-in from leadership; and more. In part two, Vickie will review the techniques previously learned, and then provide attendees with an opportunity to hone their newly-acquired skills.

Families matter: BCCPA’s free webinar to address grief and loss over COVID care home restrictions
2021-03-30 12:00 - 13:30
Event hosted by: BC Care Providers Association
On March 2, 2021, Dr. Henry indicated that the province was looking to reallow family visits in long-term care and assisted living as early as the end of this month. From the perspective of the BC Care Providers Association, this news is heartening, as the association has been advocating to reinstate family visits for many months.
There are many things to consider as our members look towards welcoming family caregivers back into long-term care and assisted living homes. Particularly, it is likely that upon being reunited with residents, some family members will experience feelings of grief and loss. In many cases, these emotions will be triggered by the physical and cognitive changes they notice after being apart from their family members for such a long period of time.
With guests from the Alzheimer Society of B.C., the Family Caregivers of B.C., and the Vancouver Island Association of Family Councils, this webinar will provide an overview of the support services which long-term care and assisted living staff can draw on to support family caregivers.
While this webinar will be geared toward long-term care and assisted living providers, all are welcome to attend this free event.
Moderator:
Mike Klassen, VP Public Affairs, BC Care Providers Association

Panelists:
Sarah Eveneshen, Provincial Coordinator, Program Development, Alzheimer Society of B.C.
Barb Mclean, CEO, Family Caregivers of BC
Kim Slater, Vancouver Island Association of Family Councils
To register click here

Session 6 Topic – Prolonged Grief Disorder
2021-03-25 00:00
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)

Illness, Suffering and Spirituality: The Path to Hope and Healing
2021-03-24 08:00 - 09:30
Event Organizer: Compassionate Ottawa
Event Cost: Free
In this conversation, Lorraine M. Wright will talk with Marion Rattray about practical and thoughtful ways that we can engage with each other when neighbours, friends, or patients are experiencing serious illness or loss in their lives, or are caring for a family member. Lorraine will draw on her own life experiences, tell stories, include humour and offer her perspective from her experience as a leader in the field of family nursing, as an academic with the University of Calgary, and as an author. This conversation will offer practical ideas and respond to questions from listeners.
To register click here.

Advance Care Planning and Goals of Care Discussions: Getting us all on the same page (plus practical tips!)
2021-03-17 12:00 - 13:00
Event Organizer: Pallium Canada
Event Host and Moderator: Dr. José Pereira MBChB, CFPC(PC), MSc, FCFP
Panelists: Jeff Myers MD, MSEd, CCFP(PC) and Leah Steinberg MD, MA, CFCP
Despite advance care planning (ACP) and goals of care discussions (GOCD) becoming healthcare priorities, there remains widespread uncertainties about the overall purpose, approaches and outcomes of ACP and GOCD. This has led to confusion among clinicians. We will discuss the relationship and differences between ACP and GOCD, what is involved with each, and how values-based decisions can be made. Practical guides and communication tips will also be addressed.
The webinar is free and open to all health care professionals and will be hosted in English. Please spread the word to your colleagues who may be interested.
To register click here

Transforming the landscape of longterm care: What has COVID-19 taught us?
2021-03-10 17:30 - 18:30
Event Hosted by: Canadian Virtual Hospice
Event Cost: Free
Join us for a discussion about the impacts of COVID-19 on families and healthcare providers, integrating a palliative care approach and how to drive lasting improvements to long term care.
Email events@virtualhospice.ca to reserve your spot.

Webinar: Adapting the Serious Illness Conversation Guide for Pediatrics and Polypharmacy
2021-03-09 09:00 - 10:00
Hosted by: Ariadne Labs
Many members of the Community of Practice have expressed interest in adapting the Serious Illness Conversation Guide to better serve their specific patient population or practice setting. This month, we welcome Drs. Danielle DeCourcey and Kristie Weir to describe why they chose to use the conversation guide and how they adapted it for use in two different, and very important, care settings.
Dr. DeCourcey will share her adaptation process of the Serious Illness Conversation Guide for use with adolescents and young adults, and a different guide for parents of adolescents and young adults with serious illness. Dr. Weir will discuss her adaptation of the Guide to determine use of multiple medicines in patients. This webinar will have recorded presentations from both speakers but feature a live Question and Answer session.
Open to members of the Community of Practice.
Register here.

CPCNA Sharing Stresses and Successes: Wellness Check-In
2021-03-03 16:00 - 17:00
Canadian Palliative Care Nursing Association Town Halls (COVID-19)
This is an opportunity to connect with palliative care nurses from across Canada to share our stresses and successes in practice in the face of COVID- 19. Michelle O’Rourke, a nurse author and counsellor, will guide our discussion as we discuss how we are doing after a year of providing care and living with COVID-19 restrictions for the past year.

Click here to register

Part 1: Learn How to Facilitate Well-Being Debriefings within Your Organization
2021-03-03 09:00 - 10:00
The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a stunning toll on the emotional well-being of health care workers. Many of us are looking for proven strategies to mitigate the natural stress, empathy strain, and moral distress that we are experiencing.
In this two-part webinar series, Vickie Leff, LCSW, will train attendees to be peer facilitators for well-being debriefings, providing the skills needed to bring this technique to their organizations. Peer-facilitated debriefings are an evidence-based way to provide support to health care workers; they increase social support, decrease feelings of isolation, and provide opportunities to learn from each other when coping with difficult issues. The result: positive impact on well-being, personal resiliency, improved patient care, and reduced feelings of burnout.
In the first webinar, attendees will learn: how well-being debriefings help health care workers; how to get buy-in from leadership; the debriefing format and role of the facilitator; how to validate the normal, expectable stress that accompanies our work; and how to navigate challenging group situations.
This webinar will be followed by part two, in which attendees will practice the techniques discussed in part one, and have opportunities to practice and reflect.
Click here to register.

Briefing: Palliative Care Outlook in 2021 – Results of a National Survey (USA)
2021-02-25 09:30 - 10:30
Join us as Dr. Diane Meier reveals the findings of CAPC’s second COVID field survey. Nearly a year into the crisis, how has COVID-19 affected palliative care programs?
Who should attend: All palliative care professionals, and all health professionals focused on strengthening care for patients with serious illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CAPC is located in the United States so please be aware that the above mentioned survey results are in relation to American findings.
Click here to register.

Implementing the COVID-19 Toolkit and Best Practices for Serious Illness Conversations using Telehealth
2021-02-09 09:00 - 10:00
The next webinar from the Serious Illness Care Community at Ariadne Labs will be tomorrow, February 9 at 12 pm ET (New York/America).
Drs. Erik Fromme and Suzanne Mitchell, Ariadne Labs Faculty, and Nancy Joyner, NP and Danielle Miltz, PA, Community of Practice Ambassadors. Dr. Fromme will give a short overview of the Serious Illness Care Program’s COVID-19 Toolkit and Dr. Mitchell will describe how Boston Medical Center has implemented elements of the COVID-19 Toolkit as part of their Pandemic response. Next, Dr. Fromme, Ms. Joyner, and Ms. Miltz will discuss best practices and cases for serious illness conversations during telehealth encounters using both phone and video platforms.
Registration (link below) is required.
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Meeting Registration – Zoom

The Serious Illness Care Program’s COVID-19 Toolkit was developed in Spring 2020, during the first peak of the pandemic in the United States. It includes four conversation guides adapted to the context of COVID-19 for use in inpatient, outpatient, long-term care and crisis standards settings. There are video demonstrations of clinicians using the guides, as well as tools to support implementation and patient-facing resources.
Webinars are presented live, and are recorded. Recordings and slides of past webinars are available on the Ariadne community of practice website, Aria.

CPCNA Town Hall: Sharing Stresses and Successes: Love in Professional Practice
2021-02-03 16:00 - 17:00
Canadian Palliative Care Nursing Association Town Halls (COVID-19)
This is an opportunity to connect with palliative care nurses from across Canada to share our stresses and successes in practice in the face of COVID- 19. Kath Murray, and educator and author, will be presenting briefly on the Ten Principles of Love in Practice, followed by group discussion.
Click here to register

Session 4 Topic – Anti-racist practice–Anti-Racist Tools for the Palliative Care Context Part 2
2021-01-28 00:00
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

A Gathering of Loss, Healing, and Hope
2020-12-21 17:00 - 17:45
Are you carrying sorrow this holiday season? Join Virtual Hospice’s free virtual gathering with spiritual leaders from across Canada to find consolation, hope, community, and light a candle honouring your loss.
Glen R. Horst, CVH Spiritual Care Advisor will lead a 45-minute virtual gathering featuring consolations and blessings from spiritual care leaders from across Canada to honour and acknowledge the grief we may carry. Find healing, hope, community, and light a candle with us.
When:
December 21, 2020 at 8:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. CST, 5:00 p.m. PST)
Where:
Online at the Canadian Virtual Hospice YouTube page (The link will be live closer to the event. Also look for it on our Facebook, or Twitter accounts the weekend before the event).

Managing Through the COVID-19 Crisis
2020-11-02 08:00 - 09:00
Center to Advance Palliative Care
This Virtual Office Hour is free and open to all, but space is limited. Sessions will be added on an ongoing basis.
This session will provide an opportunity to discuss managing the before, during, and after of the COVID-19 pandemic and the short- and long-term impact on your palliative care program. Questions during this session may include:

What lessons have been learned based on the response strategy of frontline clinicians?
How do I address communication challenges with family discussions that cannot be done in person?
How do you extend services with limited resources?

Presented by: Constance Dahlin, MSN, ANP-BC, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN, Tom Gualtieri-Reed, MBA

Giving Tuesday: Saying Goodbye
2020-12-01
On #GivingTuesday, the Canadian Hospice Palliative Association (CHPCA) wants Canadians to know that grief is a shared journey that fosters compassion and encourages them to cope with their grief by supporting each other through living and grieving. We might be physically distant, but we are together in grief.
As COVID-19 continues to cause concern for our everyday welfare, the future has never felt so unpredictable. These are challenging times for everyone, as we deal with a global pandemic. While there’s a lot of uncertainty, we know that we need to adapt quickly to our changing reality. Now, more than ever, Canadians need access to hospice palliative care and support for caregivers. CHPCA is participating in #GivingTuesday which is a global movement for giving and volunteering, taking place each year after the busy retail Black Friday that many charities and non-profits now consider the beginning of the giving season. Our campaign is executed digitally over social media on our website, FaceBook, and Twitter. ‏
For our #GivingTuesday 2020 campaign, our theme is “Saying Goodbye”. Because of so many restrictions on visitation, travel and gathering size, many people have not been able to say goodbye to their loved ones as they passed away. The CHPCA is offering Canadians the opportunity to Say Goodbye to a loved one that has passed during the pandemic by adding their loved one’s name to our Saying Goodbye Memorial Wall.
An estimated 300,000 Canadians will die in 2020, and for every one person who has died there are, on average, 5 or more loved ones who live on. They eventually must go on with their daily routines but may still be experiencing grief. With our Saying Goodbye campaign, we hope to acknowledge the grief that many Canadians are experiencing and hopefully help them not feel so alone in their grief.
This year’s #GivingTuesday call to action includes the following:
1. Sign your loved ones name on our Saying Goodbye Memorial Wall
2. Watch the Saying Goodbye Concert
3. Sign the Caregivers Declaration

Managing Stress and Burnout during the COVID-19 Pandemic
2020-11-30 07:00 - 08:30
Project ECHO COVID-19 Global Conversations
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of individuals across the globe. Healthcare workers are particularly vulnerable to burnout and increased stress. This session addresses:
• Impact of COVID-19 on mental health
• Managing burnout for healthcare employees
• Individual practices to promote resiliency
Presenter: Jeff Katzman, MD
Vice Chair of Clinical and Academic Affairs,
University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
Facilitator: Sanjeev Arora, MD
Director, Project ECHO
The session will include didactic presentations and Q & A. Click here to view the agenda.
REGISTER HERE

National Bereavement Day Webinar
2020-11-26 09:00 - 10:30
Please join the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) and the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada (QELCCC) for a free webinar to learn about new exciting work being done!
November 26, 2020 9am-10:30am PDT
In this webinar: Updates from National Bereavement Day – highlights of the 2020 National Bereavement Day and Saying Goodbye Virtual Concert from the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA – Review of the Grief and Bereavement Scoping Review from the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada’s (QELCCC) Research and Knowledge Translation (KT) Committe – Learn about the regional Grief and Bereavement Planning Project from the Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program
Speakers:
Sharon Baxter, MSW – Executive Director, Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA; and Secretariat of the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada (QELCCC), Christopher A. Klinger, PhD – Chair, Research and Knowledge Translation Committee, Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada (QELCCC); Chair; End-of-Life Issues Theme Team, National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly (NICE); and Research Scientist, Pallium Canada, Neerjah Skantharajah, MHSc(c) – Graduate Student, Translational Research Program (TRP), Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, and Tara Cohen, MSW – Program Manager, Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program and Registered Social Worker in Private Practice.
Register now
