AtlantiCare to Present Arts and Humanities in Healing Conference

AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center will present the 21st annual Victor A. Bressler Arts and Humanities in Healing Conference, “Bringing Caregivers Closer: Discussing Death and Dying,” Wed., Nov. 2, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Elizabeth B. Alton Auditorium, Pomona.
Organized by and named for Victor A. Bressler, MD, FACP, of Linwood, retired ARMC physician with more than 60 years of experience as a general internist and educator, the conference is open to patients, physicians, residents, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, multi-disciplinary allied and mental health professionals, physical/occupational therapists, first responders, poets, writers, students of the humanities and public health and community members. Attendees will address barriers and solutions in discussing death and dying with patients and families.
“The conference is intended to bring physicians, nurses, other caregivers, poets, writers, scholars, artists, administrators, and patients together to experience interpersonal, intergenerational and intercultural communication,” explained Bressler. “Each relationship thus engendered empowers healing.”
This year’s keynote speaker will be Patrick L. Clary, MD, physician and author of Dying for Beginners, first published in 2006 by Lost Borders Press. Clary has been a practicing physician in New Hampshire since 1987 and involved in hospice care since 1988. In addition to his work as a hospice medical director, he is the medical director of a large public nursing home. He has spoken at Dartmouth, UCSF, UVM, and SUNY Stony Brook as well as more than 300 other venues over the past decade. His writing has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and other leading journals. His book Dying for Beginners is in its second printing. New Hampshire Magazine’s annual poll of doctors named him a leading physician in end of life care 2009 through 2011.
The first 100 people to register will receive a free copy of Clary’s book Dying for Beginners.