Caring for Whole Persons: Surprising Opportunities for Well Being Through the End of Life
Ira Byock, MD, FAAHPM
April 5, 2018
About this Webinar Recording
Illness and dying cannot be fully encompassed by the problem-based model of medicine. Beyond symptoms and suffering, dying is a profound personal experience for the individual as well as for his or her family. The concept of “personhood” and the conceptual framework of human development will be presented as tools for understanding the nature of suffering and nature of opportunity associated with the time of human life we call “dying.” Developmental landmarks and taskwork suggested by this framework are presented and illustrated by stories. A therapeutic approach to fostering human development through the end of life can empower clinicians to alleviate suffering and improve quality of life, and guide the people we serve to a satisfying sense of life completion and life closure. The value of accompanying patients with life-limiting illness and the components of a "therapeutic stance:" Competence, Reliability, Honesty, Authenticity, Non-Attachment, and Imagination .Two distinct applications of Imagination are part of the “ground substance of therapeutics:” Receptive Imagination which physicians use to come into imaginative alignment with a patient and Generative Imagination through which physicians identify and explore opportunities from the patient's perspective.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the presentation, the participant will be able to:- Explain the concept of “personhood” and recognize that the nature of suffering involves a felt loss of meaning and purpose and a sense of impending personal disintegration.
- Identify a conceptual model and terminology of human development, applied to the evaluation, care planning and therapeutic intervention pertinent to psycho-social and spiritual suffering and resolution related to dying.
- Discuss aspects of personal experience of dying that are not captured by the problem-based model of medicine.
- Describe the phenomenology of well-being.
- Apply the therapeutic use of imagination to empathically understand the patient’s perspective and creatively envision opportunities for human development and well-being.
Ira Byock, MD, FAAHPM, is a palliative care physician, author, and advocate for improving care through the end of life. Dr. Byock has been involved in palliative care since 1978. He is a past President (1997) of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and active Emeritus Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. His research has contributed to conceptual frameworks for the lived experience of illness, subjective quality of life measures, and effective life-completion counseling. From 1996 to 2006 he directed Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program which developed prototypes for concurrent palliative care of people with life-threatening conditions. Dr. Byock currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Institute for Human Caring of Providence St. Joseph Health system. The Institute measures, monitors and improves person-centered care and engages diverse communities in goal-aligned, person-centered models of caring. Dr. Byock’s books include Dying Well, The Four Things That Matter Most, and The Best Care Possible.