VIDEO: Promoting Palliative Care to the Public

Webinar - Promoting Palliative Care to the Public

Faculty:
Ashley Bragg
Director, Stanford Palliative Care Center of Excellence (PCCOE)

Grant Smith, MD
Medical Director, Stanford Palliative Care Center of Excellence (PCCOE)

Ann Cao-Nasalga, MBA
Program Coordinator, PCCOE Community Partnerships Team

Olivia Tigre Nerimora, MHA
Project Coordinator, Stanford Palliative Care Center of Excellence

Join members of Stanford Medicines’ Palliative Care Community Partnerships Team to gain insights and “lessons learned” from partnering with community organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate a multifaceted intervention to increase awareness about palliative care in the community. Despite significant growth in palliative care (PC) services over the last decade, there has been little change in the public’s awareness of PC. As recently as 2019, nearly 70% of adults in the US have never heard of PC, and only about 10% of adults report knowing what PC is and feel that they could describe it to someone.

Several studies have shown that lack of awareness and inadequate knowledge of PC is a significant barrier for patients to accept or ask for a referral to PC. Misconceptions about PC among the public also contribute to referring providers’ fears of negative reactions to recommending PC. Together, these patient and provider barriers result in missed opportunities to reduce suffering and improve quality of life for people living with serious illness. Over three years, using innovative approaches, the Stanford team was able to demonstrate that participation in their educational sessions results in a statistically significant improvement in PC knowledge and attitudes towards PC, including a willingness to accept a PC referral.

The Stanford team is sharing this session to encourage and inspire other hospice and palliative care programs to consider pursuing efforts to promote palliative care awareness and understanding in their local communities. The team recognizes that the activation energy to get started in these efforts can feel and be high. To help lower this activation energy, they aim to use their experience to provide guidance for programs interested in community outreach by sharing their strategy, methods of connecting to community partners, educational materials, evaluation approach, and lessons learned.
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