Keynote/Presentations – for Professionals and Family Caregivers
Evaluating Danger, Risk and Safety when Creating a Care Plan
It is difficult to know when to step in and protect versus stepping back and allowing people to be in charge of their own decisions. The field of bioethics provides families and professionals with a structure and guideline for these managing these situations. Attendees will learn the questions to ask when evaluating the dangers and how to get past not wanting to see the changes that are happening. By balancing the person’s quality of life with the dangers in living that life, families and professionals can feel more confident that they are treating the person with dignity and respect.
Getting Better at Asking For and Accepting Help – for the family caregiver
This course helps caregivers learn how to get past their resistance to asking for help and gives them a 4-step process to help them get the support they need. This is an interactive course where the caregiver will create an action plan that they can use right away. This course will also teach the professional how to use this 4-step process with their clients.
When Caring Hurts – Helping You Get the Support You Need – for the professional caregiver Discuss how professional compassion fatigue may be affecting our interactions. Learn how to say, “No” when people are asking for too much and when to say, “Yes” to taking time for yourself. Demonstrate stress reduction activities.
Identify how build a support system for yourself and within your profession.
Why the Healthcare Directive You Wrote Might Not Work in the Hospital: A Bioethical Perspective and Toolkit
As a bioethicist, I often get called in when the patient has an advance directive that isn’t being honored by the family and/or physician. Learn how to create a personalized quality-of-life statement, to include with the advance directive, to enhance medically appropriate and compassionate healthcare decisions. Discuss how to encourage the patient and family to make meaningful end-of-life decisions while spending money on what really matters
Empowering Caregivers Who Are Facing Difficult Decisions
Wouldn’t it be a relief to know you are making the right decisions and doing right by the person in your care? Whether you are caring for someone with a brain injury, dementia, mental illness, or other cognitive impairment, you can learn the framework and four tools to use when making the difficult life, health and end-of-life decisions. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution but can be adapted depending on a person’s level of incapacity and the situation. Respect and compassion are the core values of this decision making process.
Navigating Healthcare Decisions for Yourself and Those in Your Care
Talking to the healthcare team can seem like we are speaking two different languages. Attendees will learn easy to use communication techniques to help navigate the difficult decisions that caregivers face. When caregivers know the right questions to ask and how to listen to what the doctor is really saying, they can make better decisions about their own health and those in their care.
End-of-life Decisions: A Safe Place to Get Your Questions Answered
End-of-life decisions are difficult enough, but when you combine the loss of mental capacity, it becomes heart wrenching and an ethical challenge. When caregivers know what to expect, these decisions become less scary and overwhelming. Attendees will learn specific questions to ask and strategies to use to make person-centered decisions about CPR, feeding tubes and other end-of-life choices. Caregiver will feel confident and comforted that they did the right thing for the person in their care.
Professional Ethics: The Practitioner’s Obligations and Strategies for Success
4 Ethical Viewpoints – Which One is Right?
Having Moral Courage in Challenging Situations
Who are the Stakeholders and What are Our Obligations to Them?
Principles and Strategies for Situations Involving Fairness and Truth Telling
Simple Tests to Determine “What’s the Right Thing to Do?”
Managing Highly Emotional Conversations
Discuss how to manage the anger, fear, denial and other emotions found in emotionally charged interactions. Identify approaches to change the negative interaction into a more positive, empathetic interaction. Attendees will also practice mediation techniques to reduce conflicts and to increase compassion and respect.
Facilitating Difficult Conversations – Getting Through the Barriers (for the professional)
It would be so much easier if people just listened to our advice and then took action. But there are so many obstacles that stand in the way. Attendees will understand what is motivating non-compliant patients in order to help them get past their personal barriers. They will learn how to deal with the denial and other emotions which interfere with good decision making. Viki will demonstrate person-centered communication strategies and techniques.
