-
Fall Conference 2011
Affirming an Ethic of Care:
Healthcare as a Moral Endeavour
September 30, 2011Program
8:00 a.m. Registration and Refreshments 8:45 a.m. Morning Prayer with Catholic Health Association of Ontario 9:00 a.m. Welcoming Remarks 9:10 a.m. Opening Address
Fr. Kevin D. O’Rourke
Bioethics: A Post Modern Fad or Moral Necessity?10:10 a.m. Question and Answer Period 10:30 a.m. Refreshment Break 10:45 a.m. Panel Presentation
It Takes a Village: An Inter-professional Conversation About Palliative Care11:45 a.m. Question and Answer Period 12:00 p.m. Lunch with Musical Interlude 1:00 p.m. Presentation
Dr. Kevin P.D. Smith
I Am My Brother’s /Sister’s Keeper2:00 p.m. Question and Answer Period 2:15 p.m. Refreshment Break 2:30 p.m. Closing Address
Nuala Kenny
Inside Out: Reflections on Moral Meaning from a Doctor-Patient3:30 p.m. Question and Answer Period 3:50 p.m. Closing Comments
Presenters
Fr. Kevin D. O’Rourke, OP, JCD, STM
Member of Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics & Health Policy, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois
Bioethics: A Post Modern Fad or Moral Necessity?
Bioethics is a comparatively new discipline. It seems the profession of medicine survived without it for hundreds of years. What does bioethics add to the profession of medicine? Is it an essential element or simply a modern appendage? What does it add to patient care? What is its moral worth? These questions will be considered in the analysis offered by Kevin O’Rourke.Panel Presentation
Members of the Interprofessional Team from the Palliative Care Unit at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto
It Takes a Village: An Interprofessional Conversation About Palliative Care
In affirming an ethic of care at the end of life, interdependence and relationship become even more paramount and every encounter is a place for moral meaning. While symptom management and control of physical pain are crucial, so too is a focus on the dying person’s emotional, spiritual and psychological health. This panel of palliative care experts will discuss what dying patients want and how a health care team ought to respond in order to provide a more holistic centred model of care.Dr. Kevin P.D. Smith, D.Phil, ICD.D
President and CEO, St. Joseph’s Health System, Hamilton
I Am My Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper
Promoting healthcare today as a place of moral meaning, requires leaders to traverse borders, exploring both the immediate and distant responsibilities of listening to, and meeting, the healthcare needs of citizens of Canada and of the world. Healthcare as a moral endeavour means living the dynamic tension between encountering persons in the local healthcare setting and remaining vigilant to global healthcare concerns, especially so in academic health science centres. It means facing the challenge of diverse and demanding healthcare needs with imaginative and innovative thought and action. This presentation will focus on how one organization has addressed these challenges.Nuala Kenny, OC, BA, MD, FRCP(C)
Professor Emeritus Dalhousie University Department of Bioethics, Ethics and Health Policy Advisor to the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada and on the Board of Covenant Health, Alberta
Inside Out: Reflections on Moral Meaning from a Doctor-Patient
Over thirty years of paediatrics schooled me well in understanding that a health care encounter is a place of moral meaning for the patient, their loved ones and their caregivers. A personal experience with a life-threatening condition has strengthened my understanding of moral meaning in illness. It has also provided new insights from the “inside” of patient experience.
Registration Information
Registration Fee:
(Includes Lunch and Refreshment Breaks)
Regular Rate: $150.00
Reduced Rate: $75.00
Seniors, Full-Time Students, CHAO Conference Registrants, & CCE Affiliates
(Centre for Clinical Ethics Affiliates include: Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, St. Michael’s Hospital, Pembroke Regional Hospital, Rouge Valley Health System, Runnymede Healthcare Centre, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Sudbury, St. Joseph’s Health System Hamilton, Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, and West Park Healthcare Centre)Payment:
Please make cheque(s) payable to:
Centre for Clinical EthicsFor more information please contact:
Lynda Sullivan, Centre for Clinical Ethics
Telephone: (416) 530-6750
Fax: (416) 530-6621
E-mail: lsullivan@stjoestoronto.caFor hotel reservations please call:
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto
475 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario
(416) 924-0611 -
Conference
David Lepofsky Story2022 – CCE Annual Online Ethics Conference Program
24th Annual Ethics Conference – Human Rights and Healthcare
This year our focus is on Human Rights and Healthcare. This expansive topic has been brought to the fore by the pandemic’s exacerbation of issues of racism, colonialization, and structural inequities within healthcare. We will hear from leading speakers on topics such as what is a ‘right’, how to balance competing interests of individuals within the healthcare system, the concept of accommodation, why cultural safety is essential in healthcare, and the impact of being uninsured in Ontario. See Program for Advance Registration information.
Week 1 – Wednesday, November 2nd – Dr. Hazel Markwell Honourary Lecture in Bioethics
– Tearing Down the Many Disability Barriers in Ontario’s Health Care SystemSpeaker – David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont, LLB, LL. M, LL.D. (Hon), visiting professor of Disability Rights and Legal Education, Osgoode Hall Law School, Chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.
Ontario’s health care system has far too many disability barriers that impede patients with disabilities from fully using and benefiting from health care services to which they are entitled. The Ontario Government has pledged to enact a Health Care Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to remove these barriers. In this presentation, I will review these health care disability barriers and talk about what needs to be done to fix this situation.
Week 2 – Wednesday, November 9th – What are rights, anyway? An ethical and legal perspective on rights in healthcare
Speaker – Xavier Symons, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University
Speaker – Melanie de Wit, JD, MPH, Chief Legal Officer, Unity Health Toronto, Adjunct Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
The language of rights is often used by people who are advocating for themselves. Patients and their Families frequently assert their “right” to particular treatment, accommodation, visitation, and information. Sometimes fulfilling these expectations detracts from what may be considered the rights of others, namely healthcare workers or other patients. How can we best navigate conflicting expectations regarding entitlements? We will explore how legal and moral concepts of rights can help us to balance competing interests within healthcare, while acknowledging the limitations of each.
Week 3 – Wednesday, November 23rd – Beyond apologies and land acknowledgements: How persist colonial ideas, policies, and systems are actively perpetuating Indigenous health inequities and what you can do about this
Speaker – Janet Smylie, MD, FCFP, MPH, FCAHS Director of the Well Living House and Strategic Advisor Indigenous Wellbeing, Reconciliation, and Partnerships at Unity Health Toronto; Professor, University of Toronto
The majority of healthcare professionals are highly motivated to advance Indigenous reconciliation. Despite these good intentions, Indigenous/non-Indigenous health inequities persist. Using specific case examples, including the opioid epidemic and COVID-19 responses, I will describe how outdated colonial ideas, policies, and systems are actively perpetuating these inequities. I will then present evidence-based and Indigenous community derived recommendations for action.
Week 4 – Wednesday, November 30th – Immigration Status and Health – the Impact of being Uninsured in Ontario?
Speaker – Michaela Beder, MD, FRCPC, Psychiatrist, St. Michael’s Hospital, Director of Mental Health and Substance Use Care, Inner City Health Associates; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Speaker – Graham Hudson, JD, LLM, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University
This talk will explore the concept of the right to health for persons who are uninsured. In particular, the clinical and legal dimensions of access to healthcare for persons lacking immigration status such as undocumented migrants will be discussed.
Speaker Biographies
-
Interview, Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto
Michael Szego, Clinical Ethicist, Centre for Clinical Ethics reflects on his journey from completing his PhD with Prof. Roderick McInnes to earning a Master of Health Science in Bioethics and launching his career that brings together clinical consultations, policy development, education, and research. Michael highlights eureka moments in his career trajectory, the power of PhD training, and the importance of following your heart in career planning.
Can you describe your current position as a Clinical Ethicist?
Clinical ethicists help clinicians, patients and their families identify, analyze and resolve ethical issues in medicine. Clinical consultations, policy development, education and research are the four main aspects of my job.
Clinical consultations are an interesting part of my job as I am brought into difficult clinical cases often involving disagreements among healthcare providers and/or patients and their families about what the right course of action should be. A classic example would be when there is a disagreement about whether life support should be withdrawn from a patient in the intensive care unit. I try and provide a structured approach and help work towards a resolution while keeping patient values/wishes at the forefront of the discussion. I value this part of my job as it marries the theoretical with the practical and gives me an opportunity to help patients/families make difficult decisions.
Read full story: http://www.moleculargenetics.utoronto.ca/alumni-spotlight/2015/7/29/dr-michael-szego
-
Past Conferences
-
Beyond Dreamcatchers: Native Spirituality Conference
Native dreamcatchers are popular with many people. (Those are the hoops with a web through the centre, decorated with feathers and beads.) They’re seen as a protective charm. But there’s more to them than that – and a lot more to native spirituality than most of us know.
Interview on CBC, All in a Weekend, Montreal, Canada
Read full story: http://www.cbc.ca/allinaweekend/religion/2014/01/25/beyond-dreamcatchers-native-spirituality-conference/
