Regence Foundation announces new program to recognize leadership, best practices in palliative care
“Sojourns” Pathway grants support hospital-based programs in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington
The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns Pathway grants will promote hospital- and community-based palliative care services that help patients, families, and medical and other health professionals get a clear understanding of effective treatment options and patient desires, increasing patient engagement in treatment decisions.
The Sojourns Pathway Program is now accepting grants from nonprofit and public hospitals (in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington) in various stages of implementing palliative care programs. The first deadline is October 19, 2009.
Contact: Joanna Burke
(503) 225-6860, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
PORTLAND, Ore. — The most fragile patients often receive the most intensive medical care, and research shows their comfort too often takes a back seat to curative treatment or intervention.
Unveiling its signature philanthropic program, Sojourns, The Regence Foundation aims to foster best practices, leadership and collaboration that help people with life-threatening and incurable illness to access quality palliative care in their own community.
Palliative care is a holistic approach that treats the whole person, including management of pain and other discomfort, at any stage of disease while supporting caregivers and families. Depending on a patient’s needs and goals for care, palliative care may be combined with or supplant curative therapies.
“Increasingly, research shows that patients’ treatment desires and comfort are overlooked,” said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. “The Regence Foundation seeks to identify best practices in which treatment and care meet with patient and family desires, and to extend those practices to our members, whether they are suffering years with a life-threatening illness or facing a limited prognosis.”
The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns Pathway grants will promote hospital- and community-based palliative care services that help patients, families, and medical and other health professionals get a clear understanding of effective treatment options and patient desires, increasing patient engagement in treatment decisions.
Grants target three phases: Hospitals that need to plan a palliative care program; those that seek to implement a plan for a program and those with a program that seek to expand it through partnerships with other community organizations. Deadlines vary, but the Foundation began accepting proposals for “Innovation” grants on July 20, 2009.
Through an arrangement with the University of California San Francisco Palliative Care Service and Palliative Care Leadership Center, hospitals that receive planning grants will receive training in how to build and sustain an effective palliative care program. Palliative Care Leadership Centers (PCLC) is a national training and mentoring initiative, with direction and technical assistance provided by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC).
To learn more about Sojourns and to download the Requests for Proposals (RFPs), visit http://www.regencefoundation.org/programs/endOfLife.html.
About The Regence Foundation
The Regence Foundation is the corporate foundation of The Regence Group, the largest health insurer in the Northwest/Intermountain region and a not-for-profit independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. A 501(c)3 grantmaking organization, the Foundation partners with organizations driving significant change in health care delivery and accessibility in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
# # #
