As our population ages, more people will be developing chronic medical conditions which will progress and eventually lead to death. The challenges of managing a patient with advanced non-cancer conditions can be fairly different from caring for someone who is suffering from advanced cancer. The 2-day course will highlight these challenges and focus on palliative care approaches to help healthcare professionals manage non-cancer end-of-life care better.

The two-day course gives an overview and summary of the field of thanatology. It explores the social, cultural, psychological, legal, ethical, and spiritual issues raised by illness, dying, death and bereavement.

This two-day workshop provides participants with a unique opportunity to obtain a holistic understand of burnout, well as a true appreciation of self-care via an immerse experience with Mindful-Compassion Art Therapy (MCAT).

Access to supportive care, palliative care and end-of-life care are essential for persons living with an advance illness. In this course, community health and social care professionals will be offered a foundational overview of psychosocial issues faced by their clients living across illness trajectories in the community, and consider their roles in providing holistic support.

Ethics lies at the heart of healthcare. For patients who are at the end-of-life and their families, it is important for healthcare professionals to apply ethical principles in order to make decisions in their best interest. Recognising this, the course will focus on the theme of “Care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)”.