Call for Abstracts: 2013 SWHPN General Assembly

Advancing Psychosocial Palliative Care

1st Annual SWHPN General Assembly

(In conjunction with the 2013 AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly)

March 11-12, 2013

Marriott at the Convention Center

New Orleans, LA

Take advantage of the special SWHPN event hotel room rate: $139.

Conference registration rates to be announced.

 

Call for Abstracts

Deadline: September 10, 2012, 5pm EDT

 

The Conference Planning Committee and SWHPN encourage you to submit an abstract to present at our first General Assembly! This interdisciplinary conference will feature oral, panel, symposium, and poster presentations on key issues, research, and innovations in psychosocial practice, education, research, and policy. We welcome new and experienced social workers and other palliative care professionals interested in psychosocial and spiritual aspects of palliative, hospice and end-of-life care.

 

Click here for more information and to submit an abstract online.

 

Completed abstracts must be submitted online by 5pm EDT on September 10, 2012. Please review the Submission Guidelines at the left of this page and complete the online Abstract Submission Form by clicking “Register” at the bottom of this page. Only completed abstracts will be considered.

 

Overview

The 1^st Annual SWHPN General Assembly, presented in conjunction with the AAHPM/HPNA General Assembly, will provide social workers, nurses, counselors, psychologists, pastoral care counselors, bereavement workers, and other professionals and educators in palliative care the opportunity to explore and exchange ideas about enhancing the psychosocial care of individuals and families living with chronic and progressive illness. We welcome submissions from new and experienced social workers and other palliative care professionals on psychosocial research, practice, policy, and education in palliative, hospice, and end-of-life care.

 

The conference theme is: Advancing Psychosocial Palliative Care. The goal is to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue designed to advance state-of-the-art scholarship and practice in psychosocial and spiritual care. Presentations will showcase original research or case narratives related to critical issues in palliative social work. Abstracts should be targeted toward one or more of the following aims of the conference:

 

• Identify and develop core competencies and best practices in psychosocial and spiritual palliative care
• Advance psychosocial knowledge and skills for social workers and interdisciplinary palliative care professionals
• Present new research related to the impact of chronic and progressive illness, medical treatment, and palliative care on individuals, families, and communities
• Promote and evaluate innovations in practice, policy, education and research in palliative social work
• Explore emerging policies, legislation, legal and ethical issues, and developing social work’s role in advocacy and empowerment
• Strengthen interprofessional teamwork and communication between social work and other palliative care disciplines
• Create bridges that strengthen connections and integrate psychosocial theory, research, and practice across palliative care settings and populations
• Critically examine and integrate cultural and structural perspectives in palliative and end-of-life care.

 

Potential topics

• Advance care planning
• Advocacy and political action
• Aging and geriatric palliative care
• Chronic and progressive illness
• Communication and decision making
• Community-based approaches
• Cultural/religious/ethnic diversity
• Disease-specific concerns (e.g., oncology, end-stage renal disease, AIDS)
• Disparities in care
• Education and professional development
• Emerging models and settings in palliative care (e.g., intensive care, hospice home, nursing homes)
• Ethical dilemmas
• Grief and bereavement
• Healthcare and palliative care policy
• Hospice care
• Interdisciplinary collaboration
• International and cross-cultural perspectives
• Intervention research
• Legal issues
• Pain and symptom management
• Pediatric palliative care
• Person and family-centered care
• Reimbursement and financial issues
• Self care
• Spirituality and faith
• Transitions and continuity of care
• Trauma, ambiguous loss, and disenfranchised grief
• Underserved/specific populations
• Undocumented persons
• Working with disabilities
• Working with families and family conflict

Presentation Formats

·      Oral Paper

Sessions will be one hour in length, and accepted papers on related topics will be organized into panels of up to 3 papers by the selection committee.  Oral papers can present the primary author’s research, a critical review of the literature on a specific topic, or case narratives that illustrate a critical issue or intervention.

 

·      Symposium

A symposium is an organized panel of up to 3 related presentations that is submitted by a primary organizer. Symposia will be 60 minutes in length, including Q&A on a topic related to advancing psychosocial palliative care. Symposium abstracts include a brief symposium overview, individual abstracts for each paper, and identification of a moderator or discussant, if applicable. [Note: The selection committee may ask the primary organizer to add a paper that was submitted separately to the panel if it relates to the overall theme of the symposium.]
(See Submission Guidelines at the left of this page)

 

·      Poster Presentation

Individual presentation in a poster format on a topic related to advancing psychosocial palliative care. Posters typically involve descriptions of research or illustrative case studies. Presenters must provide their own poster board and materials. (See Submission Guidelines at the left of this page)

 

Selection Criteria

Abstracts will be reviewed by the selection committee and evaluated based on:

• Overall quality of content
• Relevance and timeliness of topic
• Innovation and originality
• Clarity and coherence of description, goals, methods (for research presentations) and aims
• Scholarly rigor (methodological, theoretical, or clinical)
• Consistency with conference theme

 

Abstracts should be sufficiently detailed to allow evaluation of the aforementioned criteria. Each symposium abstract will be reviewed as a single submission and either accepted or rejected in its entirety; therefore if a symposium is rejected the individual paper abstracts will not be considered individually for oral presentations. Please ensure high quality and detail across presentations, and that individual authors are aware of this aspect.

 

The deadline for abstract submission is 5pm EDT on September 10, 2012. There will be no exceptions to this deadline, and incomplete abstracts or drafts will not be considered.

The selection committee will verify receipt of all completed abstracts. Primary authors will be notified of the committee’s decision by the end of October 2012.