Palliative Medicine Clinicians in the Community

UCSF Division of Palliative Medicine clinicians helped organize and lead community events in San Francisco for National Healthcare Decisions Day, a nationwide initiative to increase engagement in advance care planning. Last month’s events were held across the city with the support of several community-based organizations and churches, and focused particularly on populations identifying as LGBTQI+, African American, Latinx/Hispanic, and Chinese. In preparation, Bridget Sumser, LCSW, social worker at UCSF DPM and Steering Committee member of the SF PCWG, and Rev. Natalya Johnson, MDiv, BCC, palliative care chaplain at UCSF DPM, provided advance care planning training to event facilitators across the city.

Events were kicked off with a press conference at Lady Shaw Senior Housing sponsored by the San Francisco Palliative Care Workgroup (PCWG), where Sumser, LCSW spoke about the importance of palliative care and advance care planning. Rev. Johnson, MDiv, BCC led ACP workshops with On Lok 30^th Street Senior Center and for African American older adults at the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center in the Bayview and with the historic Third Baptist Church at San Francisco. Redwing Keyssar, RN, palliative care nurse and Director of Patient & Caregiver Education at the MERI Center at UCSF, led ACP workshops for LGBTQI+ older adults at Openhouse.