The ECHO program continues to grow, educate and inspire. With a new series on Grief and Bereavement Literacy and what promises to be a fascinating session on Serious Illness Conversations (SIC) with young adults with development disability, there is always something interesting to ECHO about.
Grief & Bereavement Literacy Series
On August 15, we are launching the Grief and Bereavement Literacy Series with “Healing Hearts Support – Finding Hope and Resilience After a Substance Use Related Loss” presented by Jennifer Howard, Program Manager at Moms Stop the Harm. The session opens with Jennifer’s presentation, followed by an opportunity to interact and ask questions. In this session, we will also hear personal stories from those with lived experience and how they found support in their bereavement journeys. We thank our presenters for being willing to share their very personal stories that we can all learn from.
Register here!
This series is for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge around grief and bereavement to support them personally or in their professional careers. We hope to attract a wide range of people including health care providers, community organizational staff and volunteers, and those personally affected by loss.
Next topic sessions in the series:
September – Bereavement following the loss of an animal or pet
October – Children’s grief after loss
with many more sessions to come….
July 25 session was a huge success!
A record-breaking 200 people – including social work, pharmacist, RN, OT, paramedic, care giver, volunteers, spiritual care, students, researchers – registered to learn more about the results from BCCPC ‘s bereavement research during the COVID-19 pandemic. The post-session survey asked two questions:
What will you do differently as a result of the session?
- Lobby elected officials for increased paid time off work for newly bereaved parents/spouses/adult children
- Encourage people to connect with their cultural rituals of grief
- Be aware of trauma that people may have experienced due to the improper bereavement practices during the pandemic
- Recognize provider burnout and looking at addressing our needs
What are you already doing that was confirmed in this session?
- Importance of being present, letting bereaved folks share their stories, and not “fixing” it
- Acknowledging that grief does not have a linear timeline
- Looking for ways to engage bereaved youth in our community
- Normalizing grief experience; identifying benefits of counselling to affected individuals
SIC Collaborative
The next ECHO session for the Updates & Innovations ECHO: Serious Illness Conversation Training for Facilitators & Clinicians is Thursday, September 21 1pm-2pm.
Topic: Caring for Young Adults with Developmental Disability – How to Do a Parent Informed / Young-Adult-Centred Serious Illness Conversation
Presenter: Camara van Breemen – MN, CHPCN(C) Nurse Practitioner (F), Enhanced Community Care Lead, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice
Who is it for? BC Health care providers who are current facilitators of the Serious Illness Conversation guide or are interested in learning more about the Serious Illness Conversation and applying it in your care setting.
Register here!
Other upcoming series & sessions:
We have a number of other ECHO series and sessions in the planning stages starting Fall 2023. Stay tuned to CentrePoint and check out or ECHO webpage in the coming weeks for updates and registration details: Palliative Care ECHO – BC Centre for Palliative Care.
MetaECHO
Tina Lowery and Stephanie Stuerle from BCCPC’s ECHO program are excited to be attending the ECHO Institute’s MetaECHO conference this September. This international conference brings together ECHO leaders, partner teams, government officials, policymakers and many more. This year, the conference will be celebrating 20 years of ECHO. Tina and Stephanie look forward to learning what ECHO programs around the world are doing as well as present and host a workshop on the growth of the ECHO program BCCPC has had the pleasure to collaborate on with some of our key partners.
A limited program of MetaECHO 2023 conference sessions will be available live via Zoom. For more information, visit the conference website.
