Make a gift today and support the Palliative Care Institute
Your gift will help support the Palliative Care Initiative’s (PCI) work in a number of areas:
Community Conversations: PCI coordinates events open to all community members designed to help us explore our choices at end of life and to activate all of us in planning and advocacy as we face the human experiences of living with serious illness and dying with intention and integrity. For example, PCI has hosted sessions of Not If But When: Books for young people about death and loss, a legacy letter writing workshop, a presentation on Aging and End of Life Care in China: Traditional Culture and Modern Practices, and multiple advance care planning events, including Death for Dinner, Your Voice – Your Choice and a seminar, Death Happens: Let’s Talk About Your Choices, which explored some of the challenging issues we face at end of life.
Provider Education: By collaborating with other agencies and constituents in Northwest Life Passages (NWLP), Western’s PCI encourages clinical provider training and client care that supports people with serious illnesses so they can receive care that heals even when there is no cure. Our annual conference brings together providers and community members to explore important questions related to serious illness care and end of life. Last spring’s conference focused on Helping 'til it Hurts: Care for the Caregiver. Additionally, PCI works with WWU’s RN-BSN Nursing program on competencies in palliative care and is collaborating with others on the development of training programs for nursing home and assisted living facility staff.
Resource Website: Whatcom County has many resources already in place to support those facing serious illness or end-of-life. However, when faced with a serious diagnosis, finding support systems can be daunting. PCI is developing a robust website (whatcomcare.org) to link community members to existing resources to provide better access to services.
Micro-Grants: This initiative provides some financial support to projects proposed by community members related to advocating for better end-of-life care or creating a more palliative community. Two significant examples are the Back-of-the-Bus campaign, which paid for signage on WTA buses encouraging advanced care planning and The Empathy Card project which provides an opportunity for community members to make personalized cards to send to loved ones facing serious illness or end-of-life.
Touch of Grace Project: This initiative, developed in collaboration with local providers and nursing home leadership, is developing training materials to build palliative care competencies across all nursing home staff, including non-licensed aides, in order to foster facility wide improvements in palliative care across all staff levels.
In Remembrance: We invite you to make your donation in remembrance of a loved one. Your donation, at any level or to support any project, will help create a community of excellence in care and support for those with serious or chronic illnesses or facing the end of life.
