On June 8, Bruce Jennings of the Hastings Center, delivered his keynote address to the largest audience for a half- day conference in the Ethics Network’s history. The conference, entitled Ethical Decisions in Dementia Care: Looking Beyond the Diagnosis, attracted 150 professionals from twenty-five disciplines with the social workers and nurses representing the largest contingency. Thanks to all who spread the word about the conference!
The conference received positive evaluations, with 92% rating the keynote address as excellent, very good, or good; the overall rating for the conference was 86% very good or excellent. Four concurrent workshops were offered and repeated a second time so that conference attendees had the opportunity to attend two workshops given by a rather distinguished group of speakers. Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, OFM, MD, PhD, facilitated a workshop on Clinical and Ethical Issues in Hydration and Nutrition. Dr. Sulmasy began the workshop with a brief presentation on the clinical and ethical issues regarding feeding tubes and parenteral nutrition in patients suffering from dementia. Workshop participants were then invited to present cases from their own experience, which resulted in an interactive discussion. Dr. David Wollner, MD, FACP, conducted a workshop on Symptom Assessment and Therapy in Cognitively Impaired Residents in Long-Term Care. Dr. Wollner discussed the principles of symptom assessment and barriers to optimal pain and symptom control in the cognitively impaired elderly. He also presented a systematic way to approach these barriers.
Ethics Network Co-Directors, Dr. Jeffrey Nichols and Dr. Paulette Sansone, also facilitated workshops. Dr. Nichols’ workshop on Informed Consent utilized a case vignette format to explore the informed consent process for dementia patients regarding elective diagnostic and surgical procedures as well as research participation. Dr. Nichols noted that dementing illnesses usually have long time courses along with a wide spectrum of functioning and that ethical discussions have tended to emphasize directions at the end stage. Dr. Sans one collaborated with her colleague, Dr. Ilan Ledner, by conducting a workshop on Advance Directives and Individuals with Dementia: Legal, Practical, and Ethical Issues. Their workshop covered such topics as cognitive capacity to appoint a health care proxy, the Health Care Proxy, and Do Not Resuscitate laws in New York State, and the roles and responsibilities of the health care proxy. Drs. Sansone and Ledner suggested ways that caregivers and professionals could advocate on behalf of this vulnerable group of individuals and assist them with the execution of advance directives (the recommendations are published in this newsletter).
The workshops received very good evaluations by the workshop participants. Special thanks to all the speakers for doing such a terrific job and helping to make the conference a success as well as to this particular conference’s planning committee: Mary Devlin, Chair, and Drs. Bart Collopy, Jeffrey Nichols, Paulette Sansone, and Susan Rosendahl-Masella. We also appreciate the assistance the Network obtained from Janet Mitchell and Dr. Elaine Congress at Fordham University in helping to set up the conference. Thanks are also extended to Sr. Sheila Moroney for her photos of the conference.
NEXT CONFERENCE:
Topic: Ethics and Long-Term Care in the New Millennium
Date: March 22, 2001
Location: Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Time: 12 – 4:30 PM
Workshops are being planned on organizational ethics, the skills and knowledge needed for conducting a bioethics consultation, ethnic diversity, and changes occurring in the culture of the nursing home.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
Posted on December 15, 2000.
Record Breaking Conference Held at Fordham was published in the Winter edition of the Ethics Network News and is available on-line at: https://www.angelfire.com/on/NYCLTCethicsnetwork/dec_jan00-010608conf.html
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