Diane E. Meier, MDToday is our 500th blog post on Health AGEnda. In another few months, we will have been working on this project for five years. We wanted today’s post to be special—and special for us means to be about better care for older adults and how the leaders we support are working to achieve it.
All of our grantees are special and all are doing vital work. One of the projects we didn’t start, but have come to value in our seven years of funding, is the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC). The work of the CAPC team and its leader, Diane E. Meier, MD, has taught us a great deal about how to think about being person-centered in the care of people with serious illness.
(Watch a video of Diane talking about the connection between palliative care her geriatrics.)
In addition to its content, CAPC has taught us about the process of transformational change in health care: the interplay of policy, research, education, communications, finance, and leadership. Most of all, Diane has taught us the value of persistence. We hope to continue our relationship with CAPC long into the future, and for this special post, I thought we might share some reasons.
Amy Berman in her posts has offered some very personal thoughts on the value of a palliative and person-centered approach to care, as opposed to one centered on technology and procedure. You can read them here and here.
A few months ago, we brought in Steven Schroeder, MD, former CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RSJF) and its leader when CAPC was initially launched with RWJF support. He gave his views on the value of palliative care, the accomplishments of CAPC, and the further challenges it needs support to surmount. You can watch his interview and hear his call for support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXY1H7MtM4Y
Click image to read the funder’s briefing document developed by the SIE.Moreover, for more than two years, we have been working as part of the Social Impact Exchange–—a program of the Growth Philanthropy Network —to work collaboratively with other funders to help strong non-profit organizations with vital, evidence-based programs find the resources they need to achieve the scale required to meet society’s needs. We are tremendously proud to have nominated CAPC and to have had it be among the first projects to pass their careful due diligence process and have it be considered for collective funding.
We believe that geriatrically expert, comprehensive, coordinated, and person-centered care can help older adults stay healthy longer and that, when eventually people become seriously ill, it can prevent suffering and provide care that is dignified and focused on personal values and goals.
Palliative care is part of our vision of better care.