STAYING CONNECTED BULLETIN - JUNE, 2020
This is indeed, a time for health care providers and health care leaders to stay connected. Across diverse health care professional/provider groups, practice arenas, and locations in Canada, it is clear that health care providers and leaders are facing significant moral as well as clinical challenges. READ MORE.
British Columbia’s health authority personnel are working to support health care providers to address the ethical challenges they face in practice—and the clinical ethicists in every health authority are fully engaged in promoting ethical patient care and work environments. It is my hope that as we address the pandemic in BC we will continue to listen to and learn from our health care providers. We need to know what they need to function effectively in terms of physical and interpersonal resources in their specific practice environments. I recommend that we take a ‘universal precautions’ approach to making regular de-briefing accessible to all. Our colleagues on the front lines of this pandemic deserve the support.
Health care treatment decisions are some of the most difficult and deeply personal life decisions. They engage fundamental questions about how we want to live and die, and impact our bodily integrity.
As a result, the right to make our own health care decisions is protected by multiple levels of legislation. The Supreme Court of Canada has determined that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the right to informed consent. READ MORE.
The Right to Assistance with Communication
People with disabilities have a right to assistance with communication. In BC this right is supported by the Human Rights Code and the Health Care (Consent) and Care Facility (Admission) Act (the Health Care Consent Act). The Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and requires accommodation of barriers linked to disability. This means not only building ramps and other mechanisms of physical accessibility but also providing assistance with communication. READ MORE.
Plain Language Resources
This year the Canadian Centre for Elder Law published a series of plain language resources on health care decision-making for people living with dementia and their families, working in collaboration with the Alzheimer Society of B.C. Although designed for people living with dementia, these videos and booklets provide an accurate summary of the law for anyone living in BC.
Perpetual reflections fascinate me. I mean the ones that result from opposing mirrors and intentional angles, seen in elevators of fancy skyscrapers, or large elegant washrooms in public performance places and locations catering to large sized groups all descending on the washrooms at one time. Best viewed when said venues are empty.
And lots of venues have been empty. Very empty. All the better to actually see the mirroring mirrors do their mirroring.
But after day one hundred, it feels a bit like the light is trapped inside the reflections and never gets out. All the brilliant insights, themes, innovative methods for communicating and coping have been taken. The class in being human like everyone else is drawing to a close. READ MORE.
- Katherine Paton, MD, FRCSC. Ageing white female, now trained in bread making, soufflé production and Telehealth encounters
New Video Series: Dementia-realated Behaviours
Dementia-related Behaviours: Putting it All Together Using P.I.E.C.E.S.™ and the BC BPSD Algorithm is a series of eleven short, engaging videos. Narrated by experienced and expert geriatric psychiatrists, Dr.’s Elisabeth Drance, Carol Ward and Barbara Prystawa, each video illustrates a component of the P.I.E.C.E.S.™ framework. They empower practitioners and caregivers to provide evidence-based, effective, compassionate and respectful care to frail older adults with complex mental health, cognitive and physical co-morbidities. READ MORE.
Gitxsan Way of Knowing About Dementia
These resources were provided by Gina Gaspard, RN, MN, GNC(C) Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nursing Services Healthy Living, Chronic Disease and End of Life, First Nations Health Authority, Vancouver.
"One night he wandered outside and was sleeping on the lawn…he had made his bed on the lawn and that really scared us,” tells Raechelle Wilson (Xsin Gans O’otsinx), Gitxsan, as she recalls a memory of her father-in-law.
Storytelling – new tools to share old ways
Video: Identity. Relationships. Belonging.
An interview with Canadian Bioethicist, Dr. Francoise Baylis CM, ONS, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS, at a a previous Geriatric Services Conference. WATCH VIDEO.
