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Goal:
Sponsor a Community-Hospital Summit to discuss how to get a palliative care program and an effective pain management focus in your local hospital. It is likely to have a more positive impact if this meeting is organized as a constructive, rather than a confrontational, discussion.
Suggested Timing:
During the Week of 10/1 (release of Palliative Care article)
Title:
Finding Our Way: How to Manage Pain and Symptoms Near the End-of-Life
Invite:
For the panel, invite well-spoken representatives from the hospital, hospice and local policy makers, and possibly a law enforcement representative. For the audience, (if not on the panel) be sure to include the Chief of Medicine, Chief of Nursing, Chief of Anesthesiology, Chief of Surgery, Hospital Director, Hospital Board of Directors, local palliative care experts, local foundation leaders, local policy makers, law enforcement (if law enforcement is involved in pain medication issues in your community), local reporters from newspapers, radio and TV, and the public.
Discussion Facilitators:
First, find a good facilitator! Next, look for experience. Choose a well-respected and well-spoken physician with palliative care experience or a community leader in hospice palliative care. The same is true for other panel members. Often, a local radio or TV show host can capably facilitate discussion.
Set up:
A panel discussion with rows of chairs available for the audience; lectern for moderator with microphone; several microphones at the head table; standing microphones in each of the aisles; print-outs of Finding Our Way articles that have run so far; print multiple copies of the Palliative Care article and place copies on each chair or hand out to each attendee. Put an easel-backed Finding Our Way poster next to the lectern. These will be available after August 15, by e-mailing your request to
findingourway123@aol.com
Suggested format:
Discussion should be focused on the current status of local palliative care and pain management services (the following is a general guideline only). Be sure to address issues that identify next steps to secure palliative care and pain management for your
community.
Facilitator Talking Points:
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The recent NCI report and the SUPPORT study illustrate that a significant number of Americans, nearly half, die in significant pain.
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The medical community is taking steps to implement educational programs to integrate palliative care into U.S. health care.
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There is a national effort under way to improve pain management and palliative care and create consumer tools for improving care near the end-of-life.
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Those of us who will face advanced illness --either with our loved ones or ourselves-- have unanswered questions about what kind of care to expect; we don’t know to whom to talk; we hardly know the questions to ask.
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Introduce hospital and community representatives (who should be prepared to give brief summaries of their work no more than 5 minutes each to help stimulate questions from the audience).
Open the floor to questions. You might want to encourage the audience to ask the panelists:
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What is palliative care and where is it available in our area?
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What are your concerns about pain management?
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What is oxycontin and is there an oxycontin “issue” in our community?
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How can I get my doctor to answer my questions that include…?
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How is our hospital currently addressing pain management near the end-of-life?
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What steps can be taken to improve how pain is managed in our local hospital?
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What are the next steps for getting pain management and palliative care services in our community?
If the discussion is slow to begin, the facilitator should be prepared to open with a real life circumstance, preferably one he or she knows personally, as an example that raises questions and topics for discussion.
Related media activities:
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Write a news release announcing the public meeting(s) for your local newspapers and broadcasters.
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Write a Public Service Announcement with the time and place of the public meeting(s) for your local radio stations.
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Contact your local TV and radio shows the event and organize interviews with the moderator and other facilitators, either announcing the public meeting or summarizing what happened afterward.
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