FREE January Webinar – Exploring Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Palliative Care: Enabling Good Practice
Bridging the Gap
In the last few years, the palliative care community has been striving for equity, striving to ensure that all individuals, have access to palliative care, and that the care they receive addresses their unique needs. An area where we can learn together in is the good practices which we use to care and support for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). IDDs are differences that are usually present at birth and that uniquely affect the trajectory of the individual’s physical, intellectual, and/or emotional development. Many of these conditions affect multiple body parts or systems. Some examples of developmental disabilities are autism, behavior disorders, brain injury, cerebral palsy, and down syndrome.
Join us for the first webinar of 2025, and learn from an innovative inter-professional team, including people from the palliative care and developmental services sector, to introduce the unique needs, tools and strategies, required to deliver good palliative care to people with IDD.
Participants will
- Be introduced to the distinct and complex palliative needs of people living with IDD
- Recognize that persons living with IDD have distinct needs and require utilization of IDD specific tools across the continuum of care
- Identify the importance of directly integrating Developmental Services specialists to the health care team
This will be of interest to the entire Inter-professional Palliative Care team. We are excited to have Janet Elder, Michael Mackenzie, and Teresa Donaldson presenting this webinar. The webinar will take place January 7th, 2025, 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific Time. Please register below and tell your colleagues!
From left to right – Janet Elder, Michael Mackenzie, Teresa Donaldson
Janet Elder is a graduate of the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She has held her Palliative Care certification since 2006. Over 30 years’ experience working and developing her knowledge in Hospice Palliative Care. She has applied her knowledge and passion to positively impact the illness experience for patients, families and care teams. Janet has been in her present role since 2019 as the Palliative Pain & Symptom Management Consultant/Educator (PPSMC) for Windsor/Essex through the Palliative Pain & Symptom Management Consultation Program for SW. Previously she worked at the Hospice of Windsor and held a number of roles including the role of the Palliative Liaison Nurse. Currently the Co-chair of the Provincial Intellectual and Developmental Disability Palliative Care Network (IDD-PCN); past chair of the provincial Palliative Care Consultation Network (PCCN); chair of the Windsor/Essex Hospice Palliative Care Committee; Non-Physician Clinical Co-lead (CLL) for OH West and previous member of the Palliative Care Health Services Delivery Framework Working Group. Her passion for supporting individuals with IDD comes from both her professional and personal experience.
Michael Mackenzie has worked in the Developmental Services community, in Toronto, for more than 35 years including: Trinity Square Enterprises- George Brown College/Re-Direction through Education, L’Arche Toronto and Montage Support Services. His areas of focus have included person-directed employment navigation, advocacy, rights, end -of- life hospice care, and legacy work. He is a former Board member of the Down Syndrome Association of Toronto and Common Ground Co-operative. Although he does not come to this issue from a clinical or academic perspective, he offers information and insights from first hand- experience navigating those he supports, their direct support workers and their families through the hard conversations around terminal illness, care- plans, choices, and the legacy of their life story.
Teresa Donaldson is a compassionate and dedicated individual with over thirty years’ experience in the developmental services sector. She earned her degree in Disability Studies from Metropolitan University. She is committed to enhancing the quality of life for the people she supports through their end-of-life care. Working diligently to bridge the gap in the current state between the medical community and developmental services. She has spoken to varied audiences in Ontario in an effort to lead developmental services to adopt policies ensuring that people with intellectual/developmental disabilities have the right to direct their end-of-life Journey.
