Continuing Education for Social Work

Promoting Respectful and Inclusive Serious Illness Care for the LGBTQ+ Community: Practice, Research and Personal Perspectives

Friday, May 10, 2024
10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Eastern Time
Online Zoom Course
(You will need to register to receive login information.)

Registration: 2 CEU Credit Hours

General: Through Apr. 30: $50; May 1 - May 9: $60

Wurzweiler Alumni and Current WSSW Field Instructors: Through Apr. 30: $40; May 1 - May 9: $50

All Current Students: $15

“Registration for this event closes on Thursday, May 9, at 5 pm. Eastern Time.”

This program presents clinical, educational, and policy perspectives in promoting inclusive and affirming care for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community, with a focus on serious illness care.  LGBTQ+ individuals experience discrimination in health care. Providers and institutions may be uncomfortable with, and often don’t ask patients about, sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBTQ+ patients fear being open about their identities, not receiving equal, competent or safe treatment, and having their family of choice and surrogates disrespected or ignored.

Guiding principles for providing inclusive and affirming care, inclusive of minority stress, resiliency and robustness, lived experiences, and intersectionality are explored, emphasizing care to trans and gender diverse communities. Speakers will present findings from their study of 290 seriously ill patients and partners on their experiences of discrimination with healthcare providers. Finally, we will walk participants through what LGBTQ+-inclusive hospice and palliative care looks like, using both personal and professional experiences as a springboard for discussion.

Learning Objectives

  Attendees for this program will understand:

1.  Guiding principles in inclusive and affirming serious illness care for the LGBTQ+ community.

2.  Barriers and facilitators of LGBTQ+ inclusive hospice and palliative care.

3.  Recommendations to address disparities in care, including sensitivity training for staff, and affirming and 
     inclusive institutional and public policy.

Presenters

Noelle Marie Javier, MD, is an associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. Dr. Javier completed her post-graduate fellowship training in geriatric medicine and in hospice and palliative medicine at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. She was previously on the faculty at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University.

In her capacity as a clinician, educator, and scholar at Mount Sinai, Dr. Javier conducts inpatient consultative services for geriatrics and palliative medicine. She is a researcher, writer, and presenter at national and international conferences in aging and palliative care. Her areas of scholarly interest include wound care, pain management, medical education, palliative care in the nursing home, rehabilitation in palliative care, pediatric palliative care, and approaches to geriatric and palliative care for the LGBTQI+ population.

Gary L. Stein, JD, MSW, is Professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, where he is a tenured faculty member in the master’s and doctoral programs.  He is also the director of the Gerontology and Palliative Care Programs and Fellowship for MSW students and for clergy, and Continuing Education.  He is PI of the study, “Project Respect: Experiences of seriously ill LGBTQ+ patients and partners with their healthcare providers,” published in Health Affairs Scholar in October 2023.  

Prof. Stein has been Vice Chair of the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network from 2006 to 2020.  He was awarded the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship, a Fulbright Specialist Program Award, and the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network’s 2017 Career Achievement Award.  Prof. Stein received his JD from New York Law School and MSW from Rutgers University.

Cathy Berkman, PhD, MSW, is a Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, where she teaches in the MSW and PhD programs. She is the Director of the Palliative Care Fellowship, Chair of the Research Area, and Chair of the Institutional Review Board for Fordham University.

Her current research focuses on the experiences of seriously ill persons who identify as LGBTQ+; the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors of Asian American older adults about advance care planning and their preferences for end-of-life care; and the experiences of healthcare social workers of color in their workplaces. Dr. Berkman received an MSW from Boston University and a PhD in epidemiology and public health from Yale University.

Kimberly D. Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, is the Betty Norman Norris Endowed Professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, as well as a Provost's Office Faculty Fellow. Before joining UVA in 2019, she spent fifteen years as a faculty member at the George Washington University School of Nursing and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Dr. Acquaviva is the author of LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice & Palliative Care: A Practical Guide to Transforming Professional Practice (2017) and The Handbook of LGBTQIA-Inclusive Hospice & Palliative Care (2023). She received her Ph.D. in Human Sexuality Education and MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Acquaviva is an AASECT-Certified Sexuality Educator and renowned speaker.

PODCAST

Rabbis, chaplains, and social workers are often called on to provide spiritual care near life’s end. Whether in response to serious illness, advanced cognitive or physical decline in old age, or unexpected, tragic violence, health care professionals and clergy need to respond compassionately and effectively with families facing spiritual, emotional, and existential crises. Clips from Wurzweiler School of Social Work’s “Spirituality Near the End of Life” Conference in July 2019 include leading clergy, chaplains, and social workers offering their knowledge, skills, and wisdom to assist professionals seeking to better integrate spiritual care into their professional and community work.

Episode 1

Episode 2