Making Sense of Risky Decisions

Fraser Health’s 9th Annual Ethics Conference
Co-hosted by Fraser Health’s Home Health, Medicine, Mental Health & Substance Use
Residential Care Assisted Living & Specialized Populations and Ethics Services
The conference
This conference will create opportunities for self-reflection and discussion about
what is at stake in complex “living at risk” contexts. It will provide space and time
to engage with the perspectives of patients and families, bioethics, clinical and administrative leaders, and colleagues from across different professions and programs
on the ethics dimensions of choices that involve risk to patients, residents and
clients.
What is it all about?
Being a care provider can be very rewarding. Connecting with a person in need of
care on a personal level and using our expertise to improve their life is a wonderful
thing. When someone in our care acts or makes requests to do things that we think
risk causing them harm, this gift becomes challenging.
Differing values, beliefs, and judgments about what behaviours are appropriate,
insufficient opportunity to think carefully about what is important to us, and the
absence of time, training and tools to help people in our care to think about what is
important to them and what living a good life means for them - all make the challenge greater.
For more on what it is all about, see the how to find the conference registration
webpage on the next page.
Making Sense of Risky
Decisions
Coming together to provide person-centred care
May 6, 2015
Coast Hotel Langley
20393 Fraser Highway, Langley
Registration: 7:30 am | Conference Proceedings: 8:30 – 4:30
Morning refreshments, lunch, and coffee breaks will be provided.
Parking is available at the hotel. The hotel is also wheelchair accessible.
Conference theme
To support thinking systematically about ethical challenges, moral distress, and how to
work through the complex and challenging circumstances of providing care in these
contexts.
Topics
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T ensions in the values that guide individuals, care teams, systems
A person’s journey through care and the narrative of their life
Wisdom on the ground, a world cafe to develop guiding values
Working through difficult issues using ethics tool
Who should attend?
The conference will be of particular interest to staff, physicians and leaders who work
in or with the partner programs. Priority will be given to registrants from the partner
programs but is open to all Fraser Health staff, physicians, etc.
How much does it cost?
•• FH Staff, Physicians, Students, and Volunteers | $0*
•• Individuals from FH affiliated organizations | $75
•• Students not affiliated with FH | $75
•• Individuals from outside FH | $175
•• *There is no cost to FH Staff, Physicians, Students, and Volunteers but to ensure that
the the opportunity is not wasted registrants will be expected to give notice if they
are unable to attend or will be invoiced post-conference ($20).
How do I register?
Visit http://bit.ly/1wIbbkI to register. Accreditation
MOC Section 1 credits - to be advised
Mainpro-M1 credits - to be advised
Co-Sponsors
This conference is a partnership between the Fraser Health programs of Home Health,
Medicine, Mental Health and Substance Use, Residential Care Assisted Living &
Specialized Populations, and Ethics Services.
Conference Faculty
Christy Simpson is Department Head and Associate Professor of
Bioethics at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine. She is also
the coordinator for the ethics-based collaborations between the
Department with Capital Health (the largest health region in Nova
Scotia), the IWK Health Centre, and the Nova Scotia Health Ethics
Network. Her primary responsibilities in this role include ethics
education and capacity building, policy development and review,
and support for clinical and organizational ethics consultations.
Christy completed her doctorate in philosophy, specializing in
bioethics, at Dalhousie in 2001.
Lynn Stevenson is Associate Deputy Minister of Health responsible
for the health services portfolio in the British Columbia Ministry
of Health. She is responsible for the divisions of health service
policy, quality assurance, population and public health and medical
beneficiary and pharmaceuticals. Lynn is a registered nurse by
profession and has held senior leadership positions in Fraser Health,
Island Health and the BC Cancer Agency. Lynn has a PhD with a
research focus on organizational change, practice and leadership.
She also holds Adjunct Professor positions in the Schools of Nursing
at the Universities of British Columbia and Victoria.
Tod Chambers is Associate Professor of Bioethics and Medical
Humanities and of Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg
School of Medicine. He presently serves as the director of Feinberg’s
Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program. His areas of research
include the rhetoric of bioethics and cross-cultural issues in clinical
medicine. He was elected in 2010 to be a fellow at the Hastings
Center. He is the author of the book, The Fiction of Bioethics
(Routledge) and, with Carl Elliott, is co-editor of Prozac as a Way of
Life (University of North Carolina Press).
Kathryn Gretsinger (moderator) is an Instructor at the University of
British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Kathryn is the lead
national audio trainer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) Radio. Her public service journalism often involves
moderating, facilitating and mcing community and educational
events.