PRE-CONFERENCE
Social Workers Together: Revitalize and Restore 
A 10 hour intensive Workshop
(NASW-LA has approved this program for three hours of ethical and seven hours of general continuing education)
Monday, July 24, 2023 (5-8PM)
Tuesday, July 25, 2023 (8AM-4PM)
New Orleans, LA

Hospice and palliative care social work has grown immensely over the past 10 years. A Second Edition of the Textbook for Palliative Social Work, published in 2022 reflects changes and challenges and honors the unique and essential contributions of social work. At the same time unprecedented challenges in our work and world have left many demoralized and disheartened. This intensive workshop will focus on replenishing the meaning in our practice, reaffirming, and introducing skills toward the goal of revitalizing your commitment and passion for the work we share. 

Terry Altilio LCSW, APHSW-C is a Palliative Social Worker with over 30 years of direct practice who lectures nationally and internationally on topics such as pain management, ethics, palliative care and psychosocial issues in end-of-life care, teaches in social work programs at NYU, and Smith.  In addition to co-authored journal publications, she is co-editor with Shirley Otis- Green and John Cagle of the Second edition of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work published in 2022 and co-editor with Bridget Sumser and Meagan Leimena of Palliative Care – A Guide for Health Social Workers published in 2019.

Most recently, Vickie Leff, LCSW,APHSW-C was the Executive Director of the APHSW Program organization, the first evidence based advance practice certification for social workers in the field of serious illness care. Vickie is currently a Palliative Social Work Consultant, providing training to healthcare providers for empathic strain, secondary trauma and resilience. She has over 35 years of clinical practice experience in healthcare including oncology, palliative care and hospice.  She has published articles in Health Affairs, JPSM and other journals related to moral distress and resilience. She is also an Adjunct Instructor at the UNC School of Social Work in Chapel Hill. Vickie received her MSW from Simmons School of Social Work in Boston in 1984.

 Monday, July 24, 2023 (5-8PM) Dinner Included
University Medical Center of New Orleans
Conference Center Room J-1518
2000 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70112
(3 hours of Continuing Educational Credit)

1)     Welcome & Overview of Workshop Schedule
2)     Introduction of participants
3)     The impact of this work on you: Sustainability
                  i)       Review the many normal consequences of this work including empathic strain, vicarious trauma, burnout and moral distress.
                 ii)     How these may manifest themselves in work and life
                 iii)    Adopting realistic and practical strategies for yourself (no bubble baths or yoga)
                                       (1)   Your warning signs
                                       (2)   Window of Tolerance
                                       (3)   Self awareness
                  iv)    Identifying strategies for your workplace
                                       (1)   Difference between burnout and empathic strain
                                        (2)   Debriefings
                                        (3)   Making the case for ongoing, endemic support of healthcare providers.
                                                     (a)   Data
                                                     (b)   Suggested approaches/templates

Tuesday, July 25, 2023 (8AM-4PM) Breakfast, Lunch and Breaks Included
Higgins Hotel
1000 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA
(7 hours of Continuing Educational Credit)

1)     Connecting the past, joining in the present to influence the future. The Birdseye view: the interconnection between issues we encounter as hospice and palliative social workers. 
                                 i)       Red Thread
                                                   (a) Intention to identify the clinical, ethical, social justice aspects of the work
                                                    (b) Identifying opportunities to minimize judgement and reinforce compassion
                                                    (c)   Raising missed opportunities for enhancing care of patients/families
                                                    (d)   Impacting legacy
                               ii)     Language and word choice: power and influence
2)     Settings to contrast and compare
                                i)       Ethics, underrepresented patients
                               ii)     Decision making, culture of settings
                              iii)    Clinical opportunities in the ED, marginalized population
                              iv)    Agency pressure that drive decision and policy
                               v)    Care transitions, continuity of care
3)     Diagnoses: Heart Failure, Cancer, Neurologic disorders
                                i)       Overview of similarities and differences of these diagnoses and our work
                               ii)     Trajectories
                              iii)    Decision making
                              iv)    MAID, VSED, related ethical substrates
                               v)     Equity implications for each diagnosis

LUNCH (provided)

4)     Interventions
            a)     Moving from “providing support” to a language of documentation that reflects our skills
            b)     Sample of interventions
            c)     Social justice and structure issues that infuse lives
            d)     Threads that link history and present to grief, bereavement and legacy  
            e)     The potential of family conferencing 
             f)      Crisis intervention and mental health risk
5)     Pain and Symptom Management
           a)     Inequities
           b)     Ethics
           c)     Political and policy aspects of substance misuse as a public health issue
           d)     Clinical and advocacy interventions
6)     Spirituality, religion and culture
          a)     Relationship to aspects of care such as prognostication, perceived end of life, decision making and miracles.

Activities will include small group discussions; narratives and outcomes; videos; defining commitment to yourself.

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