The Archstone Foundation has committed $8 million over a five-year period towards its End-of-Life Initiative. The goal of the Initiative is to improve end-of-life care for older adults in California.
Strategies
1. Educate and train physicians, nurses, and social workers in palliative care;
2. Identify and partner with organizations posed to advance the field of palliative care statewide;
3. Expand and enhance palliative care services in hospitals;
4. Develop and test models of palliative care services within long-term care settings;
5. Demonstrate how hospitals and long-term care settings with differing levels of resources can develop and sustain palliative care programs;
6. Infuse and enhance spiritual care with palliative care service programs;
7. Expand a statewide coalition seeking to improve end-of-life care in California; and
8. Convene funded programs to further develop leadership in the field, share best practices and lessons learned, and build synergies across funded programs.
Activities
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
The Foundation is partnering with the California HealthCare Foundation to co-fund a case-based series published in JAMA devoted to end-of-life care and its companion grand rounds style conferences called Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life. The goals of the articles are to explore the full spectrum of end-of-life issues and supports conferences at venues in Southern, Central, and Northern California. The series targets physicians and healthcare providers.
End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)
The Foundation is supporting nurse education and training in palliative care through the City of Hope’s ELNEC program. Funding is specifically targeting critical care and geriatric nurses.
Training of Social Workers in Palliative Care
The Foundation is partnering with the Southern California Cancer Pain Initiative (SCCPI) to support an annual conference Promoting Excellence in Pain Management & Palliative Care for Social Workers. The two-day training seeks to change the culture of social work in California through the creation of a network of social work leaders who are skilled to more effectively address pain and suffering for patients and their families.
Palliative Care Leadership Center
The Foundation is partnering with the University of California, San Francisco’s Palliative Care Leadership Center to train and mentor California hospitals seeking to establish palliative care programs.
Hospital-Based Palliative Care Service Innovation Projects
The Foundation is supporting five hospitals in Southern California to establish and enhance palliative care programs serving older adults living with complex and advanced illnesses. The University of California, San Francisco’s Palliative Care Leadership Center provides technical support and evaluation assistance to the funded projects.
Palliative Care in Long-Term Care Facilities
The Foundation is partnering with the San Diego Hospice and Palliative Care in a demonstration project that trains and mentors certified nursing assistants in long-term care facilities to provide palliative care services. The project seeks to identify and test the feasibility of infusing palliative care in long-term care facilities.
California Coalition for Compassionate Care
The Foundation is partnering with the California Coalition for Compassionate Care whose mission is the advancement of palliative medicine and end-of-life care in California to enhance the organization’s capacity and statewide presence.
Desired Outcomes
- Increased number of trained physicians, nurses and social workers in palliative care working in hospitals and long-term care settings
- Increased number of hospitals providing quality palliative care
- Increased number of long-term care facilities providing palliative care to residents living with complex chronic and advanced illness
- Increased spiritual assessment and care in the delivery of palliative care services
- Standardization of palliative care services across care settings
- Improvements in the delivery of transitional care between hospitals and long-term care settings
- Decreased pain and suffering of dying patients in hospitals and long-term care settings
- Expansion of a statewide coalition addressing end-of-life issues
- Best practices and program models that support replication of palliative care services in hospitals and long-term care settings across the state and nation
To view the press releases for the Initiative projects, please click here.
To view additional end-of-life resources, please click here.
