Saturday 4th April 2020 - Sunday 5th April 2020
Lisbon, Portugal

This global inclusive interdisciplinary conference explores dying and death and the ways culture impacts care for the dying, the overall experience of dying and ways the dead are remembered. Over the past four decades, scholarship in thanatology and palliative care has increased dramatically. Our conversations seek a broad array of perspectives that explore, analyse, and/or interpret the myriad interrelations and interactions that exist between death and culture. Culture not only presents and portrays ideas about “a good death” and norms that seek to achieve it, it also operates as both a vehicle and medium through which meaning about death is communicated and understood. Sadly, too, culture sometimes facilitates death through violence.

A key emphasis in this year’s conference will be an exploration of the connections between health care systems, caregivers, and matters of public policy that serve those at the end-of-life. To that end, we will address questions such as:

How might health care systems integrate empathic, patient-centred design principles across the entire spectrum of the end of life experience? How might new technologies offer new propositions for models of care?

How do options such as Physician Aid in Dying (sometimes called Physician Assisted Dying) factor into contemporary dying trajectories, and how best might we consider the quality vs. quantity (years) balance?

How might cultural, spiritual and traditional belief systems and practices more fully empower our relationship with mortality, both in personal and professional settings?

How are cultural attitudes toward death changing? How is serious illness and dying depicted across various artistic and media platforms?

The conference welcomes all those who endeavour to address questions such as these, along with people engaged in analysing, re-imagining and/or improving end of life experience with a view to forming an innovative interdisciplinary publication to engender further research and collaboration. Augmenting our rich conversations, our ethos aspires to create relationships and on-going dialogues that re-envision patient-centred care.

Key Topics
Continuing with the same momentum established from the previous two meetings, we invite presentations from caregivers, artists, therapists, theologians, philosophers, thought leaders, stake holders, medical professionals, entrepreneurs, designers, artists, musicians, patients, activists, journalists, policy makers, developers, technologists, and academics from across these and other disciplines that respond to or innovatively (re-)frame any of the following additional core conference themes listed below:

1: Health Care Systems: Patients, Staff, and Institutions
~ Modern Health Care Delivery Systems and Care for the Dying
~ Palliative Care
~ Hospice
~ Elder Care/Ageing in Place Models
~ Trauma and Emergency Care
~ Nursing Homes/Skilled Facilities/Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly (RCFEs)/Assisted Living
~ Clinical Competencies in Pain Management and Symptom Control
~ Measurements, Incentives, Regulatory Statutes, and Recommendations
~ Continuity of Care Across Treatment Settings
~ Interdisciplinary Care

2: The Caregiver-Patient Relationship
~ Caregiver’s (Physician’s?) Obligations and Virtues
~ Medical Paternalism and Respect for the Patient, Autonomy
~ Truth-Telling/Truth-Hearing
~ Informed Consent
~ Medicine in Multicultural Societies
~ Contested Therapies Within the Physician-Patient Relationship
~ Conflicts of Interest; Problems of Conscience
~ Caregiver Stress/Caregiver Burnout/Compassion Fatigue
~ Being With Someone Who Is Dying
~ Assessment Challenges/Barriers

3: End-of-Life Issues and Decisions
~ Defining Death
~ Organ Transplantation and Organ Donation
~ The Interplay of Ethical Meta-Principles at the End of Life
~ Nonmaleficence
~ Beneficence
~ Autonomy
~ Death Anxiety
~ Choosing Death
~ Advance Directives/Advance Planning/Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatments (POLST)/Do Not Resuscitate
~ Considering End-of-Life Issues and Decisions and Legislation

4: Relationships Between Death and Culture
~ Death and the internet
~ Death and social media
~ Death and music
~ Death in literature
~ Death in film
~ Death and broadcast media
~ Death and athletics
~ Death in comic books
~ Death and television
~ Death and radio
~ Death and print media
~ Death and popular art / architecture
~ Death and advertising
~ Death and consumerism

What To Send
The aim of this inclusive interdisciplinary conference and collaborative networking event is to bring people together and encourage creative conversations in the context of a variety of formats: papers, seminars, workshops, storytelling, performances, poster presentations, problem-solving sessions, case studies, panels, q&a’s, round-tables etc. Creative responses to the subject, such as poetry/prose, short film screenings/original drama, installations and alternative presentation styles that engage the audience and foster debate are particularly encouraged. Please feel free to put forward proposals that you think will get the message across, in whatever form.

At the end of the conference we will be exploring ways in which we can develop the discussions and dialogues in new and sustainable inclusive interdisciplinary directions, including research, workshops, publications, public interest days, associations, developing courses etc which will help us make sense of the topics discussed during the meeting.

300 word proposals, presentations, abstracts and other forms of contribution and participation should be submitted by Friday 8th November 2019. Other forms of participation should be discussed in advance with the Organising Chairs.

All submissions will be at least double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team, The Development Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.

You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 22nd November 2019.

If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 21st February 2020.

Abstracts and proposals may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in the programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) type of proposal e.g. paper presentation, workshop, panel, film, performance, etc, f) body of proposal, g) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: End of Life 3 Submission

Where To Send
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chair and the Project Administrator:

Nate Hinerman: nphinerman@usfca.edu
Len Capuli (Project Administrator): lisbondying@progressiveconnexions.net

What’s so Special About A Progressive Connexions Event?
A fresh, friendly, dynamic format – at Progressive Connexions we are dedicated to breaking away from the stuffy, old-fashion conference formats, where endless presentations are read aloud off PowerPoints. We work to bring you an interactive format, where exchange of experience and information is alternated with captivating workshops, engaging debates and round tables, time set aside for getting to know each other and for discussing common future projects and initiatives, all in a warm, relaxed, egalitarian atmosphere.

A chance to network with international professionals – the beauty of our interdisciplinary events is that they bring together professionals from all over the world and from various fields of activity, all joined together by a shared passion. Not only will the exchange of experience, knowledge and stories be extremely valuable in itself, but we seek to create lasting, ever-growing communities around our projects, which will become a valuable resource for those belonging to them.

A chance to be part of constructing change – There is only one thing we love as much as promoting knowledge: promoting real, lasting social change by encouraging our participants to take collective action, under whichever form is most suited to their needs and expertise (policy proposals, measuring instruments, research projects, educational materials, etc.) We will support all such actions in the aftermath of the event as well, providing a platform for further discussions, advice from the experts on our Project Advisory Team and various other tools and intellectual resources, as needed.

An opportunity to discuss things that matter to you – Our events are not only about discussing how things work in the respective field, but also about how people work in that field – what are the struggles, problems and solutions professionals have found in their line of work, what are the areas where better communication among specialists is needed and how the interdisciplinary approach can help bridge those gaps and help provide answers to questions from specific areas of activity.

An unforgettable experience – When participating in a Progressive Connexions event, there is a good chance you will make some long-time friends. Our group sizes are intimate, our venues are comfortable and relaxing and our event locations are suited to the history and culture of the event.

Ethos
Progressive Connexions believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract or proposal for presentation.

Please note: Progressive Connexions is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence, nor can we offer discounts off published rates and fees.

Please send all enquiries to: lisbondying@progressiveconnexions.net

For further details and information please visit the conference web page: http://www.progressiveconnexions.net/interdisciplinary-projects/health-and-illness/the-end-of-life-experience/conferences/

Sponsored by: Progressive Connexions