You can view the webinar recording below. Supporting documents such as webinar slides, transcript, and additional resources are available to download by scrolling to the attachments section below.
Older adults who are in the advanced stage of an illness or nearing the end of life may experience physical and emotional distress, fragmented care delivery, and barriers to effective communication. Family caregivers and other individuals providing support may experience related challenges.¹ Dually eligible older adults, in particular, are more likely to experience frequent hospitalizations and facility-based long-term care at the end of life than other beneficiary groups.²
Palliative care aims to address physical, spiritual, social, and emotional needs; coordinate care delivery; improve quality of life; optimize function; and assist with decision-making for individuals living with a serious illness and their families. Palliative care may also reduce hospital readmissions and the use of facility-based long-term care by offering community-based services that are tailored to the individual.³
This webinar shares strategies for skillful communication, recognition, and response to needs of beneficiaries and their families throughout the course of serious illness, and engagement of palliative care consultants as an added layer of support. Timely recognition of hospice eligibility and referral in the months before death may improve quality of life and reduce reliance on emergency departments and hospitals for crisis management. The speakers also help the audience recognize the signs of the active dying process to ensure that thoughtful expert care is available during this vulnerable time.
By the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:
- Recognize barriers and identify strategies for providing optimal care to older adults dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid with serious illness
- Define and differentiate palliative care and hospice care
- Identify distressing symptoms associated with serious illness and promising practices to alleviate these symptoms
- Recognize effective strategies to improve communication and care planning with older adults with serious illness, their families, and caregivers
Featured Speakers:
- Diane E. Meier, MD, Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care, New York
- Isaac Bromberg MD, Medical Director, Commonwealth Care Alliance, Massachusetts
- Karen Blair, RN, Commonwealth Care Alliance, Massachusetts
- Linda and Lisa Thompson, Family Caregivers
DISCLOSURE OF FINANCIAL INTERESTS:
As an accredited provider of Continuing Medical Education, the American Geriatrics Society continuously strives to ensure that the education activities planned and conducted by our faculty meet generally accepted ethical standards as codified by the ACCME, the Food and Drug Administration, and the American Medical Association’s Guide for Gifts to Physicians. To this end, we have implemented a process wherein everyone who is in a position to control the content of an education activity has disclosed to us all relevant financial relationships with any commercial interests as related to the content of their presentations and under which we work to resolve any real or apparent conflicts of interest. The existence of commercial or financial interests of speakers related to the subject matter of their presentations should not be construed as implying bias or decreasing the value of their presentations. However, disclosure should help participants form their own judgments. Those speakers who disclosed affiliations or financial interests with commercial interests involved with the products or services to which they may refer are listed below. We have also noted if a speaker has indicated that s/he will be discussing a commercial product or an off-label or investigational use.
The following planners/faculty have returned disclosure forms indicating that they (and/or their spouses/partners) have no affiliation with, or financial interest in, any commercial interest that may have direct interest in the subject matter of their presentation(s)
Gregg Warshaw, MD
No relevant financial interests or affiliations.
Nancy Wilson, MA, MSW
No relevant financial interests or affiliations.
Diane E. Meier, MD
No relevant financial interests or affiliations.
Isaac Bromberg, MD
No relevant financial interests or affiliations.
Karen Blair, RN
No relevant financial interests or affiliations.
Intended Audience:
This webinar is intended for a wide range of stakeholders – providers, health care professionals (such as home care agency administrators and staff), social workers, and front-line staff of Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MMPs), Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs), and PACE Organizations interested in learning more about palliative care.
References:
¹ Morrison, R.S. Research priorities in geriatric palliative care. J Palliat Med. 2013; 16: 726–729.
² Bynum, J. P. W., Austin, A., Carmichael, D., & Meara, E. (2017). High-Cost Dual-Eligibles’ Service Use Demonstrates Need For Supportive And Palliative Models Of Care. Health Affairs (Project Hope), 36(7), 1309–1317.
³ Ibid.