Conference 2011 – Mindful Connections
The Grampians Regional Palliative Care Conference ‘Mindful Connections’ was held on 5th & 6th May 2011 as part of the celebrations of National Palliative Care Week. The Conference was held at the beautiful Novotel Forest Resort Creswick.
‘Mindful Connections’ Conference: Improving End of Life Care using Mindfulness and Communication Skills
The Grampians Regional Palliative Care ‘Mindful Connections’ Conference:
- Engaging, entertaining and stimulating conference
- Enable delegates to network and share opportunities for a coordinated approach to service delivery
- Strengthen delegates knowledge and skill base
Topics covered:
Experienced presenters provided informative sessions on the following broad topics
- The holistic approach to practice
- Communication
- Ethics at end of life
- Spirituality
- Mindfulness
- Reflective practice
Clinical Master Classes were held prior to the conference
Conference Speakers
ROBINA COURTIN
A Buddhist nun since the late 1970s, Robina Courtin has worked since then with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, a worldwide network of Tibetan Buddhist activities, serving at different times as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala magazine, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a teacher of Buddhism. Her life and work with prisoners have been featured in the documentary films Chasing Buddha and the ABC’s Key to Freedom.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR PETER MARTIN MB BCh BAO, PGDipPM, MMed, FAChPM
Peter Martin graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1987. He was made one of the inaugural Fellows of the Chapter of Palliative Medicine in 2000. Later that year he received a Masters in Medicine (majoring in Palliative Medicine) at the University of Melbourne. His thesis was in formative database evaluation methodology. As the result of this he had a one year scholarship with the Monash Institute of Public Health with an appointment to the Department of Medical Informatics.
He continues to have an interest in medical informatics in palliative medicine through his role as Chair of the Knowledge Network Management Group ( http://www.caresearch.com.au/ ) and through the implementation of a comprehensive regional electronic clinical information system for an integrated specialist palliative care program.
His clinical interests include the multi-modality approach to cancer induced anorexia / cachexia syndrome. Peter has been leading a dedicated multi-disciplinary cancer cachexia clinic for 7 years.
He has Clinical Associate Professor posts with Deakin and Melbourne University Medical Schools as well as Senior Lectureship with Flinders University in South Australia.
DR CRAIG HASSED
Dr Craig Hassed is a General Practitioner and Deputy Head of Department at the Monash University Department of General Practice. His teaching, research and clinical interests include mindfulness-based stress management, mind-body medicine, meditation, holistic healthcare, health promotion, complementary therapies and medical ethics. Craig is regularly invited to speak and run courses in Australia and overseas and is a regular media commentator on these issues. He also writes regularly for medical journals and has published four books; “New Frontiers in Medicine” (Volumes 1 and 2), a third book on mindfulness-based stress management entitled “Know Thyself a fourth on an holistic lifestyle approach to healthcare, “The Essence of Health” and most recently a textbook co authored with Kerryn Phelps, “General Practice: the integrative approach”.
PROFESSOR MEGAN JANE JOHNSON
Professor Megan-Jane Johnstone is Associate Head of School (Research) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research, Deakin University, Melbourne. She is renowned internationally for her scholarly research in the area of healthcare ethics. Her work has focused on a range of issues including: health and human rights, cross-cultural ethics, ethical decision-making at the end-of-life, clinical risk management and patient safety ethics, health care disaster ethics, and professional conduct. Professor Johnstone is the author of several books including the internationally acclaimed: Bioethics a nursing perspective (Elsevier Science) and Ethics in nursing practice: a guide to ethical decision making (Blackwell Publishing, co-authored with Sara T. Fry, USA).
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOSEPHINE CLAYTON
Josephine Clayton is Associate Professor of Palliative Care at the University of Sydney, Head of Department of Palliative Care and Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital, as well as a Senior Research Member of the Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence Based Decision Making (CeMPED) at the University of Sydney. Josephine was awarded her PhD in doctor/patient communication in Palliative Medicine in 2005. Since completion of her PhD she has developed an international track record regarding doctor-patient communication research about end-of-life issues, including the development and evaluation of patient- and clinician- based interventions for improving communication. Examples of her research include the development of an evidence based communication tool for palliative care patients and their families. Formal evaluation of this tool, via one of the largest multi-site randomized trials to be conducted in Australia in a palliative care setting, showed significant positive effects of the intervention on patient outcomes. The tool was then disseminated by Palliative Care Australia (PCA) to all palliative care services throughout Australia. In addition, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging and PCA have now funded the translation of this tool into 20 different languages. Josephine has conducted qualitative and quantitative research regarding optimal ways of communicating end-of-life issues. She lead an extensive systematic review on this topic and Chaired a 35 member expert advisory group to develop Clinical Practice Guidelines for health professionals. These guidelines were endorsed by multiple National health professional and consumer organisations, and widely disseminated.
DR MICHAEL BARBATO
Michael has been in medical practice for more than 40 years – the last 20 years devoted wholly to the care of the dying. Previous appointments include Medical Director of the Sacred Heart Hospice Darlinghurst and Director of Palliative Care for the ACT. His areas of clinical interest are non-ordinary states of consciousness and holistic care of people living with a life-limiting illness. His time is now divided between running workshops and seminars on death and dying, regular locum work for Northern Territory Palliative Care and maintaining a large vegetable garden. Outside interests include, jogging, swimming, bush walking, bonsai and sustainable living. He is the author of two books, Reflections of a Setting Sun and Caring for the Dying (now in its second edition and renamed Caring for the living and the dying).
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JANE TURNER
Jane Turner is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Queensland with responsibility for teaching of Psychiatry across all years of the Graduate Medical Course. She provides a consultation-liaison service to the Division of Oncology at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Her clinical and research interests are the promotion of wellness following the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and the impact of advanced cancer, in particular the issues facing families when a parent has advanced cancer.
She has been extensively involved in education in oncology and has facilitated communication skills training workshops with a range of health professionals including surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, radiation therapists, nurses and allied health professionals. She chaired the working groups which developed the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the psychosocial care of adults with cancer (under the auspices of the National Breast Cancer Centre and National Cancer Control Initiative) and the consumer version of these guidelines, and is Chair of the Psychosocial Oncology group of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia.
DR ROSALIE SHAW
Rosalie trained as a teacher and a nurse before entering Monash Medical School at the age of 33. By the time she graduated she was committed to a career in palliative medicine and in 1981 established one of the first palliative care units in Australia at the Repatriation General Hospital in Perth. A decade later she accepted an invitation from Singapore to be involved in the development of palliative care in Asia. For ten years from 1999 she was the Executive Director of Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN) and travelled to more than 20 countries in the region in a teaching and advisory role. In 2010 she returned to Australia after 18 years overseas and is now a consultant physician with the Barwon Health palliative care team in Geelong.
Below are our sponsors with links to their websites.
