273074
Ethical decision making at the end of life: Recognizing a new right to palliative care
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
: 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM
The aims of this presentation are to provide a description of an emerging social ecology of end-of-life decision making, the legal, ethical, social and cultural foundations for such ecological contexts, and the implications for individual, professional, systems and public policy decision making. A major focus of the presentation is explaining the central role and place of palliative care as a therapeutic model of care in meeting the needs of seriously ill individuals over the life course - even at the end of life, in developing population-level strategies for improving public health in communities, and in addressing ethical issues related to allocation of scarce resources including the urgent need for the development of a generalist-level palliative care workforce. Adopting a phenomenological epistemological stance, the author explores the meanings of lived experiences of pain and suffering among seriously ill individuals, advances a social and developmental perspective on suffering, and examines the significance of such meanings for understanding relational autonomy, relational rights, and relational approaches to communication as part of an "ecological turn" to shared informed decision making. The author also discusses conceptual frameworks of ethics that draw upon phenomenological-existential philosophy and psychology and how such frameworks inform praxis for interdisciplinary professionals across the continuum of care both as professionals and members of communities standing in ethical relation to those who are suffering and dying.
Learning Areas:
Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe changing paradigms in decision making at the end of life.
2. Explain shared informed decision making as an emerging model for process decision making.
3. Identify new rights to palliative care and their implications for shared decision making.
4. Discuss implications of paradigm shifts and new rights to palliative care for interdisciplinary collaborative practice.
Keywords: End-of-Life Care, Bioethics
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have earned degrees in law, public health, and gerontological social work, and significant training and experience in ethics. I practice in the field of palliative and end of life care and lecture and write on bioethical issues including end of life decision making. I have delivered over 30 research presentations, workshops, trainings this academic year (August 2011 to date).
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
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