 CCCC In Action
Building a Community of Caring - Register Now!
Attend CCCC's 3rd Annual Conference. Join doctors, nurses, social workers, administrators and lawyers from around the state to discuss the latest cutting-edge issues in end-of-life care on March 16 in Burbank. Register before February 5 to get the early bird rate.
CCCC Training: POLST Conversations
POLST: It Starts with a Conversation, CCCC's two-day train-the-trainer course gives health care providers the skills to facilitate meaningful conversations with patients and their families about POLST. Pre-registration is required and space is limited.
March 1-2, Sacramento, CA - REGISTER NOW
September 15-16, Southern California
Building Bridges: End-of-Life Care through a Cultural Lens
With a grant from Kaiser Permanente Southern California, CCCC is developing a curriculum on culture and medical decision making. This half-day, highly interactive workshop will be offered as a pre-conference on March 15 in Burbank.
Building Bridges gives you the opportunity to investigate your own cultural biases and behaviors and to learn more about the "culture" of health care and how to have culturally-sensitive discussions about end-of-life care with patients and families. |
Federal Public Policy
Obama Administration Reverses Regulation on Advance Care Planning
The Obama administration has reversed a regulation to include advance care planning as part of the annual Medicare exam. The change came on January 4, just three days after the rule went into effect. The administration cited procedural reasons for the change.
According to the New York Times, a renewed debate over advance care planning threatened to distract from efforts to defend the health reform law against attack by the new Republican majority.
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People on the Move
Sandy Chen Stokes Receives AARP Inspire Award
Sandy Chen Stokes was one of ten individuals honored with a 2011 AARP Inspire Award. The award recognizes outstanding individuals who use their energy, creativity, and passion to make the world a better place.
Eric Widera Wins Cunniff-Dixon Foundation Award
Eric Widera, MD, director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Service of San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, assistant professor of geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco, and co-founder of the blog GeriPal, received an early career Cunniff-Dixon Foundation Award for improving care of patients near the end of life.
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News
Additional Funding for Palliative Care in Public Hospitals
The California HealthCare Foundation has approved $1,457,000 in additional funding to help more public hospitals develop palliative care programs. Previous funding has helped establish palliative care in 12 California public hospitals.
In 2008, 23% of public hospitals in California had a palliative care service, while the rate among all hospitals was 43%. Today, 70% of public hospitals offer palliative care.
Children's Hospice Pilot Programs Launched
Partners for Children is a MediCal demonstration project that allows children with life-limiting illnesses to receive curative and palliative care simultaneously. New pilots are being launched in Orange, Marin, San Francisco and Sonoma counties. Programs in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Diego counties were started in October 2009.
New Palliative Care Program Targets Chinese Americans
A new palliative care program designed for Chinese Americans will be launched this month at about 20 hospices in California. The program, a collaboration between the Chinese American Coalition for Compassionate Care and the California HealthCare Foundation, will train volunteers to provide care that is culturally and linguistically sensitive.
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Resources
Last Acts of Kindness
Last Acts of Kindness: Lessons for the Living from the Bedsides of the Dying by Judith Redwing Keyssar allows a glimpse into the practice of dying through the stories of those who have lived and died among us.
New Palliative Care Social Work Textbook
Textbook of Palliative Social Work, edited by Terry Altilio and Shirley Otis-Green, is designed to meet the needs of health social work professionals who seek to provide culturally sensitive biopsychosocial-spiritual care for patients and families living with life-threatening illness.
Go Wish Now Online!
Go Wish provides an easy, even entertaining way to talk about what is most important to you at end-of-life. Visit the Go Wish website to learn how to purchase Go Wish cards or to use the online version.
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Clinical
New Trend: Orders for Comfort Feeding
The Clinical Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and the New York Times published articles about comfort feeding as an alternative to feeding tubes for dementia patients who have lost the ability to swallow. Not only does comfort feeding provide patients with human interaction and intimate contact, it preserves a patient's dignity. These resources, along with the CCCC Tube Feeding brochure, can help providers discuss this issue with patients and their loved ones.
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Research
Failure to Discuss Palliative Care with Late Stage Health Failure Patients
A new study in the Journal of Palliative Medicine reports that cardiologists are often unlikely to discuss palliative care with late-stage heart failure patients.
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Education
Advance Care Planning Webinar for Nursing Homes
California's Local Area Network for Excellence (LANE) invites all California nursing homes to join the Advance Care Planning Tools and Techniques webinar.
Sponsors: CCCC, CAHF, Aging Services, Ombudsman, CALTCM, Culture Change, and HSAG
Date: January 25 at 2:00 pm
Cost: The webinar is free for Advancing Excellence campaign members. Go to www.nhqualitycampaign.org to activate you free membership and then click here to register.
Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers: A Practice Improvement Workshop
This half-day workshop for nursing home leaders provides practical strategies to reduce avoidable hospitalizations. The workshop is designed for nursing home teams only.
Sponsor: California Association of Long Term Care Medicine
Date: February 25, 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Claremont Hotel Club & Spa, Berkeley, CA
Cost: $300 per team
Post Acute Palliative Care Continuum: Connecting the Dots
This one-day program moves the focus of palliative care's rapid evolution to the post-hospital continuum of care.
Sponsor: Hospital Association of Southern California
Date: February 9, 8:00am - 4:00pm
Location: Pacific Palms Hotel and Convention Center, City of Industry, CA
Cost: $200 HASC members, $240 non-members
ExCEL in Social Work: Excellence in Cancer Education and Leadership
ExCEL strives to improve the delivery of psychosocial-spiritual care for oncology patients through an innovative oncology social work-specific leadership program.
Applicants who are selected will receive free pre-conference registration, one night hotel stay, meals, and extensive course materials.
Sponsors: City of Hope, Assoc. of Oncology Social Work & Assoc. of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers
Dates: May 2-3 (application deadline is January 21)
May 9-10 (application deadline is January 28)
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Newsletters are available on the CCCC Website (www.CoalitionCCC.org) in PDF format for anyone who is having trouble reading this email version. |
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