Symposium Agenda

7:15 am –8:00 am

Registration

8:00 am – 8:50 am

Keynote: Last Acts

David Casarett

Based on stories of real patients along with a look at cultural history, Casarett offers compelling insight into the ways people choose to spend their last days, and helps loved ones prepare for navigating the journey.

8:55 am – 9:45 am

Panel: CAN WE TALK? Conversations for Navigating Our End-of-Life Journey

Moderated by: Kim Christiansen (9News anchor)

With Bart Windrum; Connie Paeglow; C. Porter Storey, MD; Patsy Barnes, RN, BA; Jennifer Gormley, JD

A lively dialogue between citizens and professionals to map out the issues for the day from legal, medical and patient/family perspectives.

10:00 am – 10:45 am

Talking about Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning with Your Clients and Communities

Jennifer Ballentine, MA - The Denver Hospice

Equips non-medical professionals, friends and neighbors to offer compassionate and informed assistance with advance care planning, coping, grieving and options for care.

Talking about Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning with Your Family

Val Stepien, LCSW Life Transitions Counselor

An interactive workshop with the card game, “Go Wish,” as a way to explore how to talk about end-of-life choices, values, wishes and dreams with your family and loved ones.

Talking about Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning with Your Patients

Dave Nowels, MD, UCHSC UC Health Sciences Center and

Real-world tools and strategies for health care professionals to dismantle the barriers to meaningful conversations with patients and family members as they explore future choices for care and treatment.

11:00 am – 11:45 am

Talking about Your Wishes: Five Wishes

Paul Malley, President, Aging with Dignity

A walk-through of the popular, user-friendly “Five Wishes” tool for documenting choice for your medical and personal care, as well as your final arrangements and life legacy.

Talking with Your Health Care Provider

Patsy Barnes, RN, BA, Hospice of Saint John

Sound advice for navigating the medical system, getting straight talk from your doctors, making the most of short visits, and overcoming being swamped by a serious diagnosis or health event.

Talking in the Crisis - for Providers

Michelle Mathewson, RN, BSN - Exempla St. Joseph's Hospital

Especially for health care providers, tools to assist in providing comfort and clear, honest communication in the midst of a medical emergency or approaching death

11:45 am – 1:00 am

Lunch

LUNCH-NETWORKING, EXHIBITS, OPTIONAL FILM VIEWING: DYING WISH

1:00 pm – 1:45 pm

Plenary: Talking To Different Communities

Dayna Matthew, JD University of Colorado, Boulder, and Center

This mid-day plenary explores the breakdown of communication that can occur between health care providers and members of minority communities and encourages a more constructive model of engagement to improve quality of care.

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm

Talking When in Crisis- for Patient-Families

Bart Windrum Axiom Action

Through role-play and case studies, learn how to get the information you need at the time you need it from the health care professional – doctor, nurse, patient advocate, chaplain – best positioned to deliver it.

Advancing Advance Care Planning - Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment

David Koets, MD Colorado Advance Directive Consortium

Learn about a new program for identifying essential treatment choices for those with serious, chronic or terminal illness and turning patient directives into medical orders.

Talking About Your Life and Legacy

Amy Bernard, MSW Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers

Christopher Conroy, MA Olinger Cemeteries and Mortuaries

Record your personal legacy – of values, achievements, lessons learned, joys and sorrows; plan pre-death celebrations as well as memorial services.

3:00 pm – 3:45 pm

Advancing Advance Care Planning: News from the Front

Jennifer Ballentine, MA - The Denver Hospice

Even as the health care reform debate has dominated the national news, there are breaking developments on the advance care planning front in Colorado.

Walking the Talk: Maximizing Advance Directives

Jennifer Gormley, JD Elder Law Attorney

Eric Bryant, MD, MA, FACEP Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital

The essential legal documents and processes for communicating your desires if you can’t. Tips for making sure they are clear, available and workable in a real-world medical environment.

How Doctors Think

Dennis Boyle, MD

A practical, down-to-earth, and at times humorous, presentation to help caregivers and health care professionals understand physicians’ unique perspective.

3:50 pm – 4:30 pm

Closing Session -- Bovine Metropolis

The Bovine Metropolis Theater is Denver’s premier comedy organization, specializing in performance, artistic training, corporate training and corporate entertainment through sketch comedy, long form and short form improvisation. Led by Eric Farone, founder and artistic director, and an alumnus of the famed Second City in Chicago, Bovine’s professional comedians have been called Denver’s “Laugh Masters.”