By Susan Rosendahl-Masella, Ph.D. On December 7th, the New York City Long-Term Care Ethics Network sponsored its second full day conference entitled Ethical Mandate: Reclaiming the Practice of Spirituality in Long-Term Care at the Wurzweiler Graduate School of Social Work of Yeshiva University. This was one of the Ethics Network's highest-rated conferences to date with 90% of the conference attendees rating it as Excellent or Very Good. Special thanks to the conference co-chairs, Paul Brenner, Executive Director, Jacob Perlow Hospice, and The Rev. Amy Furth, Pastoral Care Director, Florence Nightingale Nursing Health Care Center, and the Conference Planning Committee--Ellen Bartoldus, Bart Collopy, Norman Linzer, Jeffrey Nichols, Paulette Sansone, and Susan Rosendahl-Masella--for helping to make the conference such a tremendous success. One hundred and fifty administrators, social workers, nurses, physicians, chaplains, psychologists, patient representatives, and students attended the conference which was made possible by the support of Dr. Sheldon Gelman, Acting Executive Vice President and Dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work and by the sponsorship of the HealthCare Chaplaincy and the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor Foundation.
The keynote address was given by Philip J. Boyle, Ph.D., M. Div., S.T.L., Senior Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, Park Ridge Center for Health, Faith, and Ethics, Chicago, IL and formerly of The Hastings Center. A summary of Dr. Boyle's keynote address can be found in this newsletter.
DR. BOYLE
The workshops, which were well-received, featured experts in the fields of ethics, medicine, and religion who addressed: responding to suffering from religious/clinical perspectives; integrating spiritual concerns in clinical assessment; integrating spiritual awareness into clinical assessment; and exploring one's own spirituality, which was an experiential workshop that utilized fairy tales and dream analysis. Thanks to the presenters: Eric Cassell, M.D., Harry Moody, Ph.D., The Rev. Stephen Overall, Rabbi Dr. Moses D. Tendler and the members of the Jacob Perlow (Lynn Friedman, Sarah Smith Gelman, Rabbi Charles Lippman, and Heather Meyerend) and Cabrini Hospice Teams (Ronnye Halpern, Jeffrey Nichols, and Elle Steinhardt). Several of the conference attendees cited that one of the most useful aspects of the conference had to do with the interactive nature of the workshops.
The final session of the day was a role-play session, moderated by The Rev. Amy Furth. Representatives from the fields of social work, nursing, and pastoral care presented role-plays with three resident/patients illustrating some of the common spiritual issues and situations encountered by long-term care professionals in clinical practice. The role-plays were rated by 96% of the conference attendees as Excellent to Good, and 87% indicated that they would like to see role-plays at future conferences. Thanks to the role-players: Nancy Curry, Patricia O'Malley, Ellen Bartoldus, Candace Coggins, Harry Moody, and Lawrence Sallee.
Scenes from the Conference:
The NYCLTCEN had several portions of the conference professionally videotaped, namely Dr. Philip Boyle's keynote address, Rabbi Dr. Tendler's Workshop on Suffering, Dr. Eric Cassell's Workshop on Suffering, and the Role-Plays. Anyone interested in purchasing these videos at $25.00 per tape should contact Dr. Susan Rosendahl- Masella at 718-797-2444 for further information.
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