Towards Gentle Landing: Transforming the Culture of Serious Illness Conversations

Join us on Monday, May 14 for a Town Hall on Transforming the Culture of Serious Illness Conversations

Discussing values, goals of care and wishes when faced with a progressive life-limiting illness can be a difficult conversation to start. Engaging in this conversation as a caregiver of a loved one or as a care provider can help inform decisions on medical (and other) interventions plus advanced care planning, resulting in a better quality of life

Facilitated by two leading experts from Harvard Medical School, this Town Hall will help you understand the importance of these conversations and provide you with tools on how to start a serious illness conversation.

Brief presentation will be followed with time for questions and discussion.

May 14, 5:00-6:00pm
The Harbour Restaurant
Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Site
53 Young Street
Kingston, ON K7M 6G4

Free parking and wheelchair accessible.

About your presenters

Justin Sanders, MD, MSc, is an associate faculty with the Serious Illness Care Program at Ariadne Labs, where his work focuses on disparities in communication and care in the seriously ill. Justin is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care department at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As a Fulbright Scholar, Justin studied barriers to utilization of hospice services among South Asian Muslims in East London, UK. Justin has a BA in Art History from Haverford College, an MD from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and an MSc in medical anthropology from University College London. He completed internship, residency and a chief residency in Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and is a recent graduate of the Harvard Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Fellowship.  He is a 2016 recipient of the Cambia Health Sojourn Scholars Award, a leadership focused career development award for future leaders in palliative care.

 

Joshua Lakin, M.D. is a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician on both the Intensive Palliative Care Unit and Adult Palliative Care Consult Service at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.  He earned his Postbaccalaureate Pre-Medical accreditation from Columbia University in New York and his M.D. from Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island. He completed his fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In his academic role, he works as a faculty member of the Serious Illness Care Team at Ariadne Labs focusing on building scalable solutions to help produce better communication by clinicians together with patients and families facing serious illnesses. His current efforts focus on improving communication for patients with serious illness and end of life issues, most specifically in primary care, hospital, and emergency room settings.