WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THE QUOTE?
“As my generation ages into the first few decades of the next century, I do not want to send a message to young policy makers that it is enough merely to provide a shelter where I can be kept pleasantly senile, as important as comfort and safety are. If Alzheimer’s disease is destined to be the last chapter in the story of my life, I want those pages to have more of a plot, and more of a character than that. I can’t bring that about by myself now, no matter how much I save or how much long-term care insurance I buy; and I won’t be able to protect my own quality-of-life interests then. But the people and the institutions that care for me could do so. Will they have the resources, and the social investment, and the proper understanding of the goals of care? They will if our nation can muster the moral courage and the political will to honor its fathers and its mothers.”
Hint: The author of the above quote will be the keynote speaker at the Ethics Network’s next conference—please see the next article for details about this distinguished speaker.
JUNE 8th CONFERENCE ON ETHICS AND DEMENTIA
The June 8th conference on Ethics and Dementia is one conference that you won’t want to miss and hopefully by now you received the conference brochure and have already marked your calendars. Once again the Ethics Network will be having the conference at Fordham University, but this time we’ll be back in the Faculty Lounge on the 12th floor. Please join us on the afternoon of June 8 to hear several prominent speakers. To begin the conference, Ethics and Dementia Care: Looking Beyond the Diagnosis will be a keynote address given by Mr. Bruce Jennings, Senior Research Scholar and former Executive Vice President of The Hastings Center. Mr. Jennings, who has written and edited thirteen books and published over one hundred articles on bioethics and public policy issues, will deliver a speech entitled, The Slow Drilling of Hard Boards: Ethics and Long-Term Dementia Care. Mr. Jennings recently published an article about the role of quality of life as it pertains to the care of patients with dementia. In the article, A Life Greater Than the Sum of Its Sensations: Ethics, Dementia, and the Quality of Life, Mr. Jennings describes key ethical issues that envelope quality of life and it is from this article that the above quote was taken. The reference to the article is: Jennings, B. (1999). A life greater that the sum of its sensations: Ethics, dementia, and the quality of life. Journal of Mental Health and Aging, 5(1), 95-106.
Following the keynote address will be four concurrent workshops that will be offered twice so that everyone can attend two workshops. The Ethics Network is quite fortunate to have a very distinguished group of workshop presenters. Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, who will be facilitating a workshop on Clinical and Ethical Issues in Hydration and Nutrition, holds the Sisters of Charity Chair in Ethics at Saint Vincents Hospital, New York City and serves as Professor of Medicine and Director of the Bioethics Institute of New York Medical College in Valhalla. He is also a Soros Faculty Scholar of The Project on Death in America. Prior to coming to New York, Dr. Sulmasy was the Director of the Center for Clinical Bioethics, Senior Research Scholar of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Sulmasy has written numerous books and articles which have appeared in medical, philosophical, and theological journals. One of his recent works is entitled, The Healer’s Calling, a book on spirituality for health care professionals. Dr. Sulmasy lecturers widely both in the US and abroad; recently he has given several seminars on hydration and nutrition.
Dr. David Wollner has agreed to facilitate a workshop on Palliative Care and Pain Management that is entitled, Symptom Assessment and Therapy in Cognitively Impaired Residents in Long-Term Care. He is a founding member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, where he currently serves on the Board of Directors. Dr. Wollner is board certified in medical oncology, internal medicine, geriatric medicine, and hospice and palliative care. Prior to joining the Department of Pain Medicine & Palliative Care as a Geriatric Palliative Care Specialist at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, Dr. Wollner was on staff for many years at Calvary Hospital.
Rounding out the distinguished group of speakers includes the Ethics Network’s very own Co-directors, Dr. Jeffrey Nichols and Dr. Paulette Sansone, who are each doing workshops. Dr. Jeffrey Nichols who is Medical Director at Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation and Chief of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at Cabrini Medical Center, New York, NY will be conducting a workshop on Informed Consent. Using a case vignette format, Dr. Nichols plans to explore the informed consent process for dementia patients including elective diagnostic and surgical procedures and participation in research. Dr. Sansone, Director of Social Service and Research at Schervier Nursing Care Center, Bronx, NY will collaborate with Mr. Ilan Ledner, Social Service Supervisor at Schervier Nursing Care Center and conduct a workshop on Advance Directives and Individuals with Dementia that focuses on legal, practical, and ethical issues. Given that individuals with dementia are often denied the right to express their health care preferences by means of an advance directive, Dr. Sansone and Mr. Ledner plan to discuss the ways that caregivers and professionals can advocate on behalf of this vulnerable group of individuals and assist them with the execution of these important documents. Topics such as cognitive capacity to appoint a health care proxy, the Health Care Proxy and Do Not Resuscitate laws in NYS, and the role and responsibilities of the health care proxy will be addressed in the workshop.
Drs. Sansone, Schmitt, and Nichols conducted a ground-breaking research study on the capacity of demented nursing home residents to name a health care proxy that received a great deal of coverage by the press. Dr. Sansone and her colleagues (1998) found that a significant proportion of verbally communicative nursing home residents with dementia possessed the capacity to consistently name an appropriate health care. The results of this study, Determining the Capacity of Demented Nursing Home Residents to Name a Health Care Proxy, can be found in volume 14, issue number 4 of the Clinical Gerontologist.
It is certainly going to be difficult to decide which of these workshops to attend. If you have not already received a conference brochure in the mail, you can obtain full details about the conference, including a registration form, on our web site at https://www.angelfire.com/on/NYCLTCethics network/index.html and click on the conferences link. You can also call the Ethics Network for further information about the conference and speak with Dr. Susan Rosendahl-Masella. She can be reached by phone at (718) 796-2444, by fax at (718) 796-2444, or by e-mail at nycltcen@aol. com. We hope to see you at the conference!
Article published in the Spring 2000 edition of the Ethics Network News, 6(2), 1-2. Article available on-line at: https://www.angelfire.com/on/NYCLTCethics
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Bruce Jennings
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