[BIC-announce] FW: Ira Byock lecture on end of life, May 4 at 5:30 pm - The ethics and practice of loving care

[Jennifer Chew, Ms.]

PLEASE DISCARD IF THIS IS A DUPLICATE.  THANK YOU. JENNIFER 
 

Jennifer Chew

McConnell Brain Imaging Centre

MNI - WB317

3801 University Street

Montreal, Qc  H3A 2B4

Telephone:  514-398-8554

Fax:  514-398-2975

 

 

________________________________

From: neuro [mailto:NEURO at LISTS.MCGILL.CA] On Behalf Of Enza Ferracane, Ms.
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 9:02 AM
To: NEURO at LISTS.MCGILL.CA
Subject: [NEURO] Ira Byock lecture on end of life, May 4 at 5:30 pm



 

You are cordially invited to hear 

 

Ira Byock, MD

Director of Palliative Medicine 

Professor of Anesthesiology, and Community and Family Medicine

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center 

 

who will talk about end of life care in his lecture 

 

The ethics and practice of loving care* 

 

Wednesday, May 4 at 5:30 pm 

 

Moyse Hall at McGill University 

(Moyse Hall is in the Arts Building, up the driveway from the McGill main gate on Sherbrooke)

 

*The lecture will be in English with simultaneous French translation.

 

 

Read about Dr. Byock's approach to caring for the dying patient:

Byock speaks and writes eloquently about dying as a natural part of human development, about how, just as it's possible to live well, it's possible to die well. In one of Byock's books titled The Four Things That Matter Most: A Book About Living, he describes the importance of being able to say to loved ones: "Please forgive me," "I forgive you," "Thank you," and "I love you." 

 

Byock explains:  "There are discernible tasks or areas of human development that turn out to be very commonly important to people at the end of life. It has to do with completing our relationships in the world-in our communities, with friends and acquaintances, as well as with close friends and family. Once you've said those things, often you are able then to say 'good-bye' whenever the good-bye has to happen. With those few words-11 words-I've seen so many relationships be transformed at the end of life. And people's quality of life often paradoxically rises, becomes so much more peaceful, settled, satisfactory, full-ironically, when they're facing life's end. Yet today's health-care system doesn't make such an approach to end-of-life care easy. We labor under a health system in which people who are seriously ill are forced to choose between care for prolonging their life and care for comfort and quality of life."

 

As a model for end of life care, Byock draws a parallel between end-of-life care and pediatric care, noting that a well-child visit is precipitated not by a problem but simply by the need for some oversight of the normal but risky events of infancy. Similarly, he feels, care at the end of life should focus on that stage as part of normal human development, rather than as a problem.

 

Please join us for this public lecture and for the reception that will follow.

 

Elizabeth Kofron, PhD

Associate Director 

Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital 

3801 University Street

Montreal, Quebec  H3A 2B4 Canada

 

Direct line: 514-398-2316

Assistant:  514-398-6047

elizabeth.kofron at mcgill.ca