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CSUSM Palliative Care Conference

June 10, 2016 features experts and practitioners

San Diego, CA – April 4, 2016 csupalliativecare.org. The California State University Shiley Institute for Palliative Care at Cal State San Marcos and the San Diego Coalition for Compassionate Care (SDCCC) have joined forces to create a first-of-its-kind conference for physicians, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals in southern California. From Conversations to Action: Palliative Care Across the Continuum is a professional continuing education conference that will explore palliative care in a hands-on, interdisciplinary format. Front-line palliative care professionals from San Diego County healthcare systems including Sharp, Scripps, UCSD, Kaiser and Rady/Children’s will be presenting their best practices. The conference will be held at Cal State San Marcos in San Marcos, California, in North San Diego County, on June 10, 2016.

TED Talks Speaker Among Featured Presenters

Dr. Michael Fratkin of ResolutionCare, TED Talk speaker and palliative care visionary will be among national experts presenting at the conference. Fratkin’s musings on the ResolutionCare site tell his views: “The economics of providing healthcare to those of us with serious illness are changing fast. As a society, we are realizing that ‘more’ is not better. New ways of funding programs like ResolutionCare are being developed across the country to be driven by the value they deliver to people defined by them as satisfaction with their experience and well-being, rather than by the number of encounters or procedures that can be billed.”

Dr. Sharon Hamill, professor of Psychology and Institute Faculty Director at CSU San Marcos, summarized the driving force behind assembling this conference: “Palliative care as an option among the many choices facing those with chronic or life-threatening illness is gradually becoming better recognized as a positive alternative, however many gaps still exist. We’ve partnered with the San Diego CCC to give health professionals more exposure, more time, and more tools to serve their patients well as they face serious illness.”

Palliative Care is More Than End-of-life Care

Palliative care is often misunderstood as hospice. “Palliative care” is care for those with a serious or chronic illness that optimizes quality of life by anticipating, preventing, and treating suffering. Palliative care is appropriate for anyone, from the time that a serious illness is diagnosed onward through the course of the illness. Palliative care is delivered by an interdisciplinary team of professionals, including physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, pharmacists and other disciplines. Together they address the physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of patients and their families.

To learn more or register for the conference, go to csupalliativecare.org/conference. For more information, write to this email address, llipsey@csusm.edu, or call the CSU Shiley Institute for Palliative Care at Cal State San Marcos at 760-750-3550.

About the Coalition for Compassionate Care

The Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, www.CoalitionCCC.org (CCCC), through its statewide organization and its local coalitions, strives to provide resources to health providers and the public, to aid in the difficult decisions patients and families face at any point in a serious illness. The vision of the San Diego chapter of the CCCC is that all people in San Diego County will have the opportunity to discuss their health care priorities with their loved ones, friends and healthcare providers, complete advance care planning documents, and feel empowered to make informed decisions so that they can receive the medically appropriate treatment they want to receive—and avoid medical treatment they do not want—in alignment with their goals of care.

About the CSU Shiley Institute for Palliative Care at Cal State San Marcos

Cal State University San Marcos is where the idea behind the CSU Shiley Institute for Palliative Care was born. Under the leadership of CSUSM President, Karen Haynes, the Institute was launched in September of 2012. As the flagship Campus Partner, CSUSM is working to support the mission of the Institute by integrating the topic of palliative care into the daily curriculum as well as expanding awareness of the importance of palliative care to campus staff, faculty, and community members throughout Southern California. The CSU Shiley Institute for Palliative Care, dedicated to increasing access to and awareness of palliative care by educating current and future professionals as well as community members, offers palliative care-focused professional development and continuing education courses that are enhancing the skills of current and future healthcare professionals across the country and around the world.