Embracing End of Life Conversations
Hello dear friends,
This past week, I had the opportunity to end the End Well 2023 Symposium in at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, fairly close to my home in West LA. End Well is a non profit dedicated to the belief that the way folks experience end of life should be in a way that is in concordance with their life and values. I've been following their work for a few years so the opportunity to attend their symposium, in person, was deeply meaningful.
The conference was a powerhouse of beautiful speakers, storytellers, advocates, and kindred spirits. We heard from palliative care physicians such as Ira Byock who spoke about the need for a systems change revolution in how hospital systems and hospice addresses death and dying - calling out the role of greed and profit in preventing patients from receiving the care they deserve. I was deeply touched by the moving story shared by PICU nurse Hui-wen Sato who shared about caring for children and families in their most critically vulnerable states and how her own experiences with grief impacted her work. Her story hit me viscerally, reminding me of all the patients I've cared for during my residency whose deaths I never had a chance to process. And I loved seeing my friend Laurel Braitman,incredible writer and storyteller, share about her work What Looks Like Bravery - laying bare her own complex story with grief, loss, mourning, and love.
It was a heavy day yet a beautiful one - a catharsis I didn't even know I needed. Even though I spend so much of my time thinking about creating reflective spaces, I'm always amazed how much I still have yet to unpack from my own medical journey. Throughout my medical training, the conversations on death and dying were few and far between and often centered on the logistics - the neurological death exam, pain management at the end of life. These are important and necessary to learn, of course, yet what I always yearned for was space to be human with patients, to grieve the suffering I witnessed and the patients who had died. Spaces to talk about death and dying are naturally intimidating - confronting our own mortality is one of the most existential aspects of being human. Yet our comfort and ability to hold space, to bear witness, is a fundamental nature of our work as healthcare workers and a more compassionate healthcare system cannot exist without it.
What is your comfort with discussing end of life? What do you wish you knew? We'd love to hear from you
With love and gratitude,
Anu & Laura
Want to learn more about about End of Life Resources?
EndWell has an amazing compilation of resources for patients, caregivers, healthcare workers, enterpreneurs and anyone curious to learn more about death and dying. Feel free to check out their work!