Hospice conference brings information & networking

MARQUETTE — Providing the care patients deserve and desire has been an overarching theme of this year’s Upper Great Lakes Palliative Care and Hospice Conference.

Wednesday morning, professionals from the U.P. and beyond gathered in Marquette for the conference’s second day of networking and education about a variety of hospice care related topics. This was the second year for the conference, which was hosted by Lake Superior Hospice and Lake Superior Palliative Medicine. Attendees were treated to informational sessions and workshops on subjects like planning for the future, both personally and from the point of view of care organizations.

“Oh, it’s been a lovely conference,” said Stephanie Anderson, senior faculty consultant at Respecting Choices and one of the event’s keynote speakers. “They have gathered a tremendous knowledge base with the presenters, and they’re focused from direct patient care through leadership, through transformational work to fix our healthcare system, and really bring the focus back to the person, and so it’s been a myriad of different opportunities.”

Organizers hope attendees can use the tools learned at the two-day conference in real-life situations. Many conference veterans joined new attendees this year.

“We’re thrilled to see so many people, and some familiar faces and some new faces that may not have been here last year that have heard about it this year,” Lake Superior Hospice director of volunteers and outreach Bethany Buehrly said. “We have seen an increase in numbers, which is great, and we are just hoping to kind of keep that momentum and continue to go on for next year.”

While organizers say there’s only time to scratch the surface on some of the deep topics covered, the conference has been able to get the discussion of those topics started among care workers.