Jonathan Evison will join a panel discussion, The Art of Caregiving, at BTC’s Settlemyer Hall in a collaboration between the Palliative Care Institute, Bellingham Technical College, and Whatcom READS.  

Evison is the author of The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, which portrays interactions between an in-home caregiver and a young man in the advanced stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. 

This book, although fictionalized, raises many of the issues about providing palliative care, including questions of independence and the balance between living a ‘full’ life and a ‘safe’ life. 

Panel members will include Evison, Bonnie Blachly from WWU’s RN-BSN Nursing Program, and a faculty member from BTC’s nursing program.

FREE EVENT.

The Palliative Care Institute is collaborating with the Women Gender Sexuality Studies Speaker series to sponsor two events with Eli Clare on March 7, 2017 on Western’s campus.

In Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure, writer, activist, and poet Eli Clare uses memoir, history, and critical analysis to explore ideas related to cure. Clare’s analysis ranges far beyond questions about the roles of palliative and curative care when faced with serious illness and end-of-life, stretching from disability stereotypes to weight loss surgery, gender transition to skin lightening creams. However, Clare’s critique of our society’s focus on cure at all costs, and the role of profit and often unreasonable promises of resolution in the search for cure, is pertinent to the work the Palliative Care Institute is undertaken in these domains and may provide a lens for continued community discussions about our choices at the end-of-life.

12 noon-1 pm in Miller Hall 105 – Brown Bag lunch with students and faculty: Eli will read excerpts from Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure followed by discussion, 

4-6 pm in Science, Mathematics, Technology Education building (SL) 120 – Eli will speak on "Gaping, Gawking, Staring" followed by discussion.   

7-8 pm at Village Books, Bellingham.  Reading from Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure.

Death and Dying Summer Session Class    HSP 497 – CRN 31332

June 20, 2017-August 18, 2017  9 week session

Instructor – Bonnie Blachly.

“It is necessary to meditate early, and often, on the art of dying to succeed later in doing it properly just once.”  (Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before)

 Course Description:  Death is an inevitable experience for all living things.  Yet, the thought of our own mortality is often met with feelings of avoidance or denial.  It is not until we experience a significant loss through the death of a family member, friend, or pet that we come face to face with our own actual demise. 

This course is an exploration of Death and Dying and the varied responses (physical, emotional, spiritual) from different perspectives as presented through literature, art, music, film, medicine, psychology, religion, culture, and philosophy. Through these various mediums, we will explore how people cope with the idea of impending death, the dying process, and the follow up care of bereavement as well as the legal, ethical and policy issues around this subject.  9 week session -  

This course will be a hybrid mix of in-person and on-line sessions.  The three in-person sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 6:00-9:00 pm in MH 156.

• Tuesday, June 20th        6:00-9:00 pm
• Tuesday, July 25th         6:00-9:00 pm
• Tuesday, August 15th  6:00-9:00 pm

If you are a current WWU student, please register through Classfinder Summer session offerings. 

If you are not a current WWU student and wish to take this class for credit, please register following the Visiting Students instructions at the REGISTER button below.

If you are a community member and wish to audit the class, please contact Bonnie Blachly at Bonnie.Blachly@wwu.edu for more details. (This opportunity means that there will be no credit assigned and no official university record. It is offered on a space-available basis.)

The Palliative Care Institute is developing a new website -- WHATCOMCARES.ORG --  to provide better access to services in Whatcom County for those living with long-term chronic or serious illness or facing end-of-life. We recognize that there are already many resources in our community to serve this population, but also notice that those needing services often have difficulty finding the right resources.

The website has three major sections:  RESOURCES, LIBRARY, STORIES to link patients and their families to traditional inpatient and outpatient palliative and end-of-life care, complementary and alternative care, spiritual care, and other ancillary services or supports, both formal and informal.  We are including a library and other informational videos and articles related to serious illness and end-of-life and stories from our community.

We plan to launch the site early in June and invite you to share your stories about serious illness or end-of-life.

TEXT TO OPEN THE STORIES SECTION:

We use stories to make sense of our world and to share that understanding with others. Our experiences – as patients, family members or caregivers – with the onset and ongoing management of serious illness, and the impact illness has on our relationships is the stuff of stories. In fact, these stories help us make sense of the illness experience. In the medical landscape where the illness is typically described as a diagnostic label or a treatment plan, these narratives can reframe our frustrations, explore the questions and paradoxes of suffering and capture the meaning of the lived experience.

We welcome engaging and interesting guest stories related to serious illness care and end-of-life experiences in all their forms.  Our blog is geared to raise awareness about all aspects of palliative and end-of-life care.

Please note, we do not have funding to pay guest bloggers. If you wish to submit a guest post, send us a draft of your post. Our committee will review your post to determine if this blog topic meets the criteria for inclusion. We may simply post it or perhaps return your article for a revision or rewrite if we think it could be more appealing to our readers.
 

Instructions for submitting a blog post: 

• Post length should not exceed 500 to 900 words, although a longer article will be considered if the topic is unusually compelling.
• The content of the post must deal with key themes of this website. We are especially interested in stories that bring a personal perspective to these themes.  We do not welcome rants or rages.
• Guest posts must be original (written by you or with a co-author) and may not have been published online elsewhere, unless they have been revised, expanded and rewritten.
• You may include a high-quality short video with your article; it should have been already uploaded on to YouTube or Vimeo.
• Permissions:
  • If you quote or reference someone else’s work, full credit must be provided. Please fact check, reference original sources, and where appropriate, include links in the body of your post.
  • Where appropriate, you must have obtained permission from other living people who feature in your story or for any materials and photos used.
• Include a short author bio (2-3 sentences) with your photo (JPG format preferred) and up to two links that might appear in your bio at the bottom of your blog article (website, social media profile, and/or your own blog.) Please include any other information that can help us learn about you and your work. (Your website name, Facebook or other social media pages, Amazon author page)
• Please note: we do not allow any advertising on our blog.
• If we publish your guest post, you will retain copyright of your post. You are free to reblog the post, but we ask that you link back to our page where your guest post is featured, and mention that the post was originally published on whatcomcares.org.

Send your proposed post to Marie Eaton -- pci@wwu.edu

It takes a team to manage chronic pain.

Meet the WISH team from Eugene (Willamette Integrative Services & Healthcare)

Keynote Speaker: James R. Morris, MD &

Karla Austin, FNP, ND, Scott Pengelly, PhD, Leigh Ann Turner, LPTA, Kate Fabian, Yoga Nidra instructor

*Local presenters in the afternoon*

Goal: Increase knowledge about alternatives to opioid management of chronic pain

Objectives:   

1. Learn how to reduce dependence on opioids to manage chronic pain

2. Envision a team approach to managing chronic pain

3. Raise awareness of community resources and improve access by creating a database

4. Recognize the effectiveness of different modalities through improved pain assessment skills       

Cost: $75       *CEU/CMEs pending

To register or for more details contact: Sheila Rhodes, srhodes@hinet.org

Additional 1 hour morning session available for physicians.  7am-8am.  

NOTE:  This event has sold out.  Another is being scheduled.  Please contact contact Ashley at A Sacred Passing (360) 927-5040 to purchase tickets.

We’re hosting a dinner party you just can’t refuse.

WWU’s Palliative Care Institute has partnered with A Sacred Passing and The End of Life Washington Organization, formerly called Compassion & Choices, to offer an evening of great food, wine, information, laughter and a little portion of death.

We are bringing the best resources together for an entertaining evening that will actually be good for you. Having Death, or his stand in, over for Dinner can be an easier way to approach the conversation about end-of-life options. 

This dinner event will be facilitated by Ashley Benem, Death Midwife, LMP, author & Executive Director of A Sacred Passing. Each course will bring exploration of facts and humor about the end of life process and how to plan for the inevitable in a real, practical way. And you’ll get a chance to complete your up-to-date Advance Directive over dessert and coffee with help from Ashley. 

It’s a smorgasbord heaped with information, feelings, laughter, revealed assumptions, guesses and creativity. All the ingredients for a memorable dinner party. 

There are two seatings for this event - One on August 18th in the Orchard at Hovander Homestead and one on October 20th at the Lairmont Manor.   

Seating is limited for both events.  Cost is $100 per/person; includes a delicious dinner, catered by Lovitt Restaurant, wine, dessert, facilitated discussion & documents. A portion of the fee is a donation to support programs to improve palliative and end of life care at the  Palliative Care Institute, End of Life Washington and A Sacred Passing.  All are 501(c)3 organizations. For more information contact info@asacredpassing

Read more about your facilitator, Ashley Benem on our Facebook event page: Death for Dinner comes to Lairmont Manor.

SAVE THE DATE - May 11.    Click on the Registration link below!

The Palliative Care Institute is offering a day-long conference on Holistic Pain Management: Alternatives to the Opioids.  Over the day we will explore multiple approaches to pain management, including complementary and experimental interventions.  We have a terrific line up of speakers!!  And CMEs available - see below.

Lucille Marchand, MD  - University of Washington, Professor and section chief of palliative care in the Department of Family Medicine, and director of the UW Medical Center’s Palliative Care Program

• Complex Pain Management Requires an Integrative Approach
• Having Healing Conversations

Adrith Doorenbos, PhD - University of Washington, Professor, Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics

• Non-pharmacological pain strategies in palliative care and Telehealth delivery in rural areas.
• Facing a World of Hurt: Cultural considerations in pain and palliative care

Pippa Breakspear, MEd, CDP - Private Practice, Recovery Support Services, Bellingham Washington

• Junkies Like Me: From Pain to Addiction

Steve Morris, PhD - Specialist in Integral Health, Bellingham, Washington

• Stress Busters – Hands on Techniques for Reducing Pain and Achieving Coherence

Erica Rayner-Horn, MA - Private Practice in Psychotherapy specializing in mindfulness as a tool for managing physical and emotional pain and distress, Seattle, Washington

• Finding Peace In Every Moment : The Power Of Mindfulness In Relieving Pain And Anxiety
• Bringing Mindfulness Home

T. Cody Swift, MA  - Private Practice in Psychotherapy and Counseling, Santa Cruz, CA.  Researcher at Johns Hopkins Universit

• Psilocybin for the Treatment of Cancer-Related Emotional Distress
• Deepening Understandings of the Practice of Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Future Clinical Indications in Palliative Care

Learning Objectives

After this education, learners should be able to:

1. Differentiate the complex components of pain
2. Distinguish between nociceptive and neuropathic pain
3. Outline challenges associated with conventional approaches to pain management
4. Describe multiple integrative approaches to pain management
5. Identify strategies for developing integrative pain management systems in rural environments.

Accreditation: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements of the Washington State Medical Association through the joint providership of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center and Western Washington University. PeaceHealth St. Joseph is accredited by the WSMA to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

PeaceHealth St. Joseph designates this live activity for a maximum of 6 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This activity meets the criteria for up to 6 hours of Category I CME credit to satisfy the relicensure requirements of the Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission.

Accreditation Equivalency Statement: Category 1 CME credits generally are accepted on a 1:1 equivalence by nursing, social work and other health related licensing authorities.

Early Bird Registration is open until April 12, 2018.  Because of a generous anonymous donor, scholarships to reduce the fees are available. Inquire at pci@wwu.edu  If you have trouble with the on-line registration process, contact (360) 650-3353 for assistance.

 What better time to "talk turkey over turkey" than when we gather with family and friends around the table on Thanksgiving Day? Dr. William Lombard's presentation on Kidney Disease, its symptoms, causes and treatment, is a new addition to the popular "Realities of Advanced Medical Interventions: Make Your Wishes Known" series. Prepare to gather 'round your holiday table for a feast of honest conversation -- Dr. Lombard's presentation supports good decision making before there is a health care crisis.

William E. Lombard, MD, long-time nephrologist and medical director at Mount Baker Kidney Center, will discuss kidney disease, its symptoms, causes, and treatment options. Dr. Lombard will explore the actions are necessary to sustain health, including treatment options, and how to get the support needed to adjust to life with kidney disease. Advance care planning and completing advance directives will be discussed in this interactive session.

Doctors, nurses, and others on your health care team know that the best time to "make your wishes known" about your future health care preferences is when you are well, not in the ICU or the Emergency Department.

These are often seen as tough conversations to initiate. But, they can be as tender and warm and humorous as you make them. Turkey Day dinner conversation? You bet. Offer up a serving of comfort and start the conversation about your preferences, before a time might come when you can no longer communicate your wishes.

It always seems too soon, until it's too late.

For information on this presentation: micki98226@aol.com

Resource information will be available for assistance in Advance Care Planning

"It Always Seems Too Early, Until It’s Too Late." 

The Palliative Care Institute, in collaboration with PeaceHealth, The Chuckanut Health Foundation, the Whatcom Alliance for Heath Advancement, and community activist, Micki Jackson, is hosting an evening of stories about the importance of Advance Care Planning to help you better understand the implications of your healthcare choices if an accident or serious illness happens. 

Perhaps you think you’re too young to begin these conversations – or perhaps you’ve just been procrastinating. Over the evening, community members from every generation will share stories about why planning ahead is so important. 

Resources for completing your own advance care directive will be shared.

In a special effort to encourage students to attend, there will be a raffle drawing for five $1500 scholarship awards for any current student at NWIC, WWU, BTC, WCC or SVC. So bring your student body card along.

Scott Foster, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Executive, PeaceHealth Medical Group, will highlight PeaceHealth's commitment to a comprehensive system for understanding, documenting and honoring patient values and goals for care at the end of life in all healthcare settings, including Advance Directives.

This event is free and is offered in support of National Health Care Decisions Day.  Click the "Learn More" button to access their resources for advance care planning.

Join us for an evening of conversation and dialogue about PeaceHealth's current policies, procedures and practices related to serious illness and end-of-life care. Many of us have heard stories (some good and some troubling) about how and when PeaceHealth can or cannot (or will or will not) support our end-of-life choices. For example, perhaps you wonder: 

"Will my Advance Care Directive Choices be honored if I am taken to the hospital for a medical emergency?   OR... If I am in the hospital or in Hospice and I choose Death with Dignity how will PeaceHealth help me reach physicians who will prescribe?"    OR... "If I am in hospital or Hospice may I choose VSED?

Gurpreet Dhillon, Director of Palliative, Cancer and Hospice Care at PeaceHealth St Joseph Medical Center; Jodi Newcomer, Nurse Manager of Whatcom Hospice; Ross Fewing, Director of Mission & Ethics at at PeaceHealth St Joseph Medical Center; and Sally McLaughlin, Executive Director of End of Life Washington, will help us explore these questions and look forward learning about what is most important to our community through these conversations.

This event is co-sponsored by the Death Café of Whatcom County, the Palliative Care Institute, PeaceHealth's Palliative Care team and End of Life Washington.