After the success of last year’s inaugural event, Hospice of the Chesapeake will once again host a free educational opportunity for professionals and community members. The Caring for the Continuum of Life: A 2019 Healthcare Symposium will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 19 at First Baptist Church of Highland Park, 6801 Sheriff Road, Landover, Maryland.
Hosted by the Chesapeake Life Center, Hospice of the Chesapeake and Chesapeake Palliative Medicine, the symposium will feature a full day of presentations from experts in the fields of hospice and palliative care, grief counseling and spirituality. Some of the sessions will offer continuing education credits.
Hospice of the Chesapeake President and CEO Ben Marcantonio said the goal of the symposium is to provide much-needed education to empower patient-centric decision making and begin to change the way families experience advanced illness, end of life, and grief and loss.
“We are part of the world’s most advanced healthcare systems and we still see people struggle to navigate decisions about treatment or gain access to the care that will best meet their needs,” Marcantonio said. “What we see most significantly is that patients and families do not always receive all the information they need to make informed decisions about the care they want.”
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the nonprofit, which started after two nurses, Fran Grauch and Martha O’Herlihy, attended a lecture by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross that showed them a new way to care for patients in their end of life: To provide skilled care that embraces the mind, body and spirit and focuses on comfort and quality of life. It is fitting that the organization has become known for freely sharing its four decades of expertise in advance of their mission of caring for life throughout the journey with illness and loss.
“As a 40-year member of the healthcare community, we believe that we have a responsibility to increase awareness and understanding as well as reduce the burden of making these life-changing decisions,” he said.
With the support of community partners, this educational symposium is
100 percent free of charge to attendees as a part of the nonprofit’s ongoing commitment to those it serves.
Additional information and updates will be available at www.caringforlifemd.org in the weeks to come. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Jennifer Castellanos-Graham at 443-837-1527 or jcastellanos-graham@hospicechesapeake.org.
