The 16th annual Living With Grief teleconference, sponsored by Rowan Regional Medical Center Hospice, will be held at the Salisbury Civic Center today from 1:30 to 4 p.m.
The national bereavement teleconference will focus on diversity and end-of-life care. The Civic Center is located at 315 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.
Each year, the Hospice Foundation of America presents a nationally recognized distance learning program, live via satellite and Webcast, to more than 125,000 people in 2,000 communities. This year’s teleconference will examine how diversity influences end-of-life decision-making and the impact culture has at the time of death and during bereavement.
The program will discuss challenges that may occur when cultural considerations may cause ethical concerns or moral distress.
For more than a decade, this annual educational program has been instrumental in educating health-care professionals and families on issues affecting end-of-life care. The program provides an opportunity for a wide variety of professionals ó including doctors, nurses, funeral directors, psychologists, educators, social workers and bereavement counselors ó to share and exchange ideas and obtain continuing education credits.
The teleconference will be moderated by Frank Sesno, professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University and special correspondent with CNN.
Sesno will lead a panel of noted authorities, including Samira K, Beckwith, president and CEO of Hope Hospice and Community Services; Sandy Chen Stokes, executive director of the Chinese American Coalition for Compassionate Care; Kenneth J. Doka, professor of gerontology at the Graduate School of the College of New Rochelle; Wanda H. Jenkins, bereavement services manager for Vitas; Richard Payne, director of the Institute on Care at the End of Life, Duke University; Paul Rosenblatt, professor of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota; and the Rev. Carlos Sandoval-Cros of St. Simon’s Episcopal Church, who is also a psychiatrist with a private practice.
Hospice Foundation of America is a nonprofit which acts as an advocate for the hospice concept of care through ongoing programs of professional education, public information and research on issues relating to illness, loss, grief and bereavement.