Older Adults Engage in Conversations on the End of Life in Osher Closure Course

On February 14, members of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) end-of-life team concluded the annual "Closure: Discussing the Last Chapter" course, offered through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Twenty-four older adults with a broad range of professional backgrounds joined the virtual course to increase their understanding of issues around planning for the end of life and the very personal concepts of what constitutes "a good life" and "a good death."

Nancy Zionts, JHF COO and chief program officer, Judy Black, MD, MHA, JHF medical advisor, and Lisa George, program manager for communications and aging initiatives, led participants during the five-week course.

In the series kickoff on January 17, participants shared their reasons for electing to take the course, including seeking guidance on advance care planning for themselves and their elderly parents, tips for initiating conversations about making end-of-life decisions with their children, and guidance on managing conflict with family members involved in decision making. Using narratives of other people's "last chapters" and practical tools and resources, the course helped to destigmatize and demystify the process of talking about death and dying as well as how to make the most of their own "next-to-last chapter" and live well later in life.

Sessions focused on advance care planning, POLST (Pennsylvania Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment), palliative care, and hospice. During the POLST session, participants broke into small groups to discuss case studies presented by Dr. Black and guest faculty Rachel Ombres, MD, outpatient palliative care medicine physician at Allegheny Health Network and medical director for Highmark Health's Enhanced Community Care Management program, and Libby Moore, LSW, DHCE, director of guardianship at Federated Guardians. The series finale featured guest faculty Fredric Price, MD, former chief of gynecologic oncology at Allegheny Health Network, who spoke about healthcare decision making at the end of life, as well as a presentation by Zionts on grief, funeral planning, and organ donation. Throughout the course, participants share their appreciation for the faculty's expertise and the extensive resources provided.

This course complements JHF's slate of end-of-life educational offerings, which include the Death and Dying Fellowship for graduate students, the Death and Dying Series for Healthcare Professionals, as well as the POLST online continuing education modules.