Conference Agenda

Description

In 2021, Drs. Winemaker and Seow created a public health palliative care social movement called The Waiting Room Revolution, which is designed to make a palliative care approach accessible to all patients and families early in their illness journey. (www.waitingroomrevolution.com) The heart of the movement is to activate patients and families, early in their life-changing illness, to take charge and control of information.

The movement has different communication strategies including social media, a podcast and a book. The movement has achieved several milestones of success: The podcast is ranked in the top 1.5% of global podcasts, has over 100K downloads, and is listened to in 82 countries. The book was a #1 best-seller in it first month of release.

Dr. Seow will share the lessons learned in messaging about palliative care to the general public, patients and families, including the resulting 7 keys that can activate patients, families, and providers to have a better illness journey. He will also share the 7 actions for providers that correspond to the 7 keys for patients. The workshop will discuss the applicability of these 7 keys to other countries and strategies for spread.

Target audience

All health care providers and palliative care educators

Learning objectives

1. Share the lessons learned of how the Waiting Room Revolution evolved into a successful social movement
2. Describe the 7 keys for navigating a life-changing diagnosis for patients and families
3. Apply 7 corresponding actions for providers to embody an early palliative care approach

Structure of the workshop

The format of the 1.5 hour timeframe:

• 30 mins of explaining the approach and the 7 keys for navigating a life-changing diagnosis
• 30 min of using practical exercises to role play the different skills and exercises taught to the public and to generalist providers
• 30 mins of discussion of how these approaches can be adapted to different international contexts