Palliative Care
Talk
End-of-Life Planning in Group Format in Primary Care is Highly Effective
- DG
Dale Guenter, MD, MPH, FCFP
Associate Professor
McMaster University
Primary Presenter(s)
The Health Tapestry Research Program at McMaster's Department of Family Medicine identified that the general population of older adults was eager to have conversations about end-of-life plans, and that most had not done so. Based on this, and the evidence that Advance Care Planning (ACP) can improve health and health service utilization, McMaster Family Health Team developed an inter professional, group-based program to be delivered in workshop format in a 2 hour session, which has now been delivered numerous times. The goals of this curriculum are: to provide opportunity for enjoyable reflection and conversations about fears and priorities in the face of serious illness; to improve peoples' understanding of the technicalities and legalities of ACP; to provide people with support and resources in order to write and communicate an ACP; and, to help people to determine who their best substitute decision maker would be. This presentation will introduce participants to the methodology used to achieve each of these goals, as well as evaluation data on the effectiveness of the curriculum.
Learning Objectives:
- Upon completion, participants will be able to, design a group program for end-of-life planning.
- Upon completion, participants will be able to, explain the principles and steps of end of life panning.