Planning in Serious Illness: The Conversation
A part of Peacham Library's Health Talk series.
Tuesday, August 18 at 7pm

A number of recent press articles and books, including Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, have raised the nation's awareness about caring for people towards the end of their lives. One of the most important, and also most challenging, tasks of living with serious illness is finding some measure of control during this vulnerable time. This work begins with conversations with people living with serious illness about what is most important to them as they think about the future. Please come for a brief presentation about how the medical specialty of Palliative Care thinks about these conversations and for a brief introduction to some of the tools available for preparing for and recording these conversations with your family or your physician. There will be plenty of time for questions and community conversation.

Joshua Lakin works as a doctor on the palliative care service at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's hospital. He focuses on communication and decision making in serious illness and works with Susan Block and Atul Gawande on their efforts to build and spread means for improving care of people with serious illness near the end of their lives. Most importantly, he was married in Peacham and wishes he could say he were Vermont based.

Contact Peacham Library at 592-3216 or peachamlib@fairpoint.net for more information.

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