Loretta K. Wilson | The Better End: Working with the Dying Client

Includes

- Access to live event

- Live video recording of entire meeting

- Separate audio file so you can listen on the go

- All supporting materials

What’s different if I’m working with a client who is dying? What if I do the wrong thing? Is Palliative Care the same as Hospice? Isn’t depression normal if you’re dying?

Visiting or working with clients in the dying process may present a challenge, but it can also be a powerful means by which we can do some of the work that needs to be done before we, or someone especially close to us,dies.  Unfortunately, we may be so caught up in the anxiety that this visit provokes or in looking back on past regrets, that we fail to see what is happening right in front of us. In this discussion we will define palliative care, hospice, and active dying as well as other terms you may encounter; address the ways in which the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness may impact the individual; explore the difference between healthy grieving and pathological depression; and offer practical suggestions for working with someone who is dying.   

Loretta K. Wilson, RN MSN, a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, provides psychotherapy and psychiatric medication management as a private practitioner in San Francisco and Petaluma, CA. She specializes in palliative psychiatric care, which addresses the uncertainty, emotions, and anxiety that can accompany illness or end of life. Loretta’s practice focuses on cultivating emotional flexibility, awaking meaning, and identifying purpose for patients, caregivers, and clinicians.

Loretta most recently designed and implemented the Psycho-Oncology Service at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco and was a founding clinician of our groundbreaking Ketamine Clinic at that same medical center. Previous to that, she worked in Palliative Care, Urgent Psychiatric Care, and Emergency Room Psychiatry at Stanford, Westside Services, and the Veterans' Administration, respectively. A Master of Science Nursing from Vanderbilt University anchors Loretta’s formal training, but the inspiration and deeper background for her practice derive from lessons learned while volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project and Maitri Hospice in San Francisco.