This Conference was held 13-14 May 2021

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE 2021
‘Where the wild things are – At the fringes of Palliative Care’

13-14 May 2021  |  Virtual Conference

• Magic mushrooms and death anxiety
• Homelessness
• End of life care in prisons
• Hope, Heart and Healing in health care
• Immunotherapy in advanced cancer
• Organ donation and the palliative care interface
• and much more

PROGRAM

Day One Thursday 13 May

8:00am – 08:30am  Registration

Featuring

Dr Kelli Stajduhar

Dr Kelli Stajduhar, RN, PhD, FCAHS, FCAN is a professor in the School of Nursing and Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria, CANADA. She has worked in oncology, palliative care and gerontology for over 30 years as a practicing nurse, educator, and researcher. Her work focuses on health service needs for those at the end-of-life and their families, and on the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations. Dr Stajduhar has received multiple honours and awards in recognition of her work, most recently being named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Canadian Academy of Nursing.

Dr Margaret Ross

Marg is a Senior Clinical Psychologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, working in the Psychosocial Cancer Care and Palliative Medicine Departments. She has worked as a research fellow at the University of Melbourne and as a senior clinician in both inpatient and outpatient mental health settings before moving into the field of psycho-oncology and palliative care a decade ago. Margaret is the Lead Principal Investigator for the Australia’s first Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy trial to treat depression and anxiety associated with terminal illness.

Dr Vishal Boolell
Medical Oncologist, Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre

Dr Vishal Boolell graduated from the University of Melbourne. He completed his basic physician training at Austin Health before completing his advanced training at Bendigo Health, Western Health and Monash Health.

He is a former research fellow of Monash Health and the Hudson institute where he worked on early phase clinical trials across multiple tumour streams.

He currently provides a public outreach clinic to the Wimmera Health Care Group in Horsham. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, European Society of Medical Oncology, Medical Oncology Group of Australia and has a keen interest in breast, brain, lung and gynaecological cancers.

Dr Vish Boolell will provide us with an overview of current immunotherapy agents, classes of immunotherapy drugs and clinical management of palliative patients receiving immunotherapy. Dr Boolell will also discuss the risk of drug interactions with common palliative care medications.

Dr Stacey Panozzo

Dr Stacey Panozzo is a Research Fellow with Palliative Nexus, St Vincent’s Hospital and The University of Melbourne. Stacey is a researcher whose particular areas of interest include improving supportive and palliative care access and delivery for patient groups experiencing vulnerability.

Lucy Mayes

Lucy Mayes is an author, facilitator, presenter, story catcher, wisdom collector, space holder, team builder, purpose finder, consultant & coach. She is an experienced, authentic and sought-after presenter and award-winning leadership development professional who challenges status quo and siloed thinking. Her work focuses on compassionate, humanist, authentic leadership for our times, and on developing individuals, teams, organisations and communities to enhance wellbeing, connection and purpose. Lucy’s unique skillset draws on her background as a lawyer, company director and social worker, having worked across multiple settings including corporate, community, local government and not for profit contexts. She is author of Beyond the Stethoscope: doctors’ stories of reclaiming hope, heart and healing in medicine (2017, Heart Works Press) inspired her doctor husband’s journey with burnout. The book is a collection of raw, intimate, provocative and inspiring stories of surviving, thriving and leading change in medicine, by compassion warriors across Australia, New Zealand and internationally.

“Lucy is an engaging facilitator and entertaining public speaker. She will leave a positive impact on every member of your group/team and lead to meaningful change that is sure to make your workplace/organisation a much better – and more productive – place.” – CEO

Larna Woodyatt

Larna Woodyatt is the Nurse Donation Specialist at Ballarat Health Services for DonateLife Victoria. Her role is to raise awareness of, and provide clinical and educational services on organ and tissue donation for all medical, nursing and allied health staff that come into contact with the donation process. She also works with hospital staff to identify and care for potential organ and tissue donors and assists with supporting clinicians, the donor and donor family throughout and following the donation process.

In addition to this, Larna’s role also sees her contributing to awareness raising and donation promotion activities within the broader community.

Larna also works as a Donation Specialist Nurse Coordinator for DonateLife Victoria.

Larna’s background is in Intensive Care Nursing and she also has experience in Governance and Risk Management, specifically around hospital accreditation.

Dr Chi Li

Dr Chi Li is a palliative care physician practising in rural Victoria and New South Wales and also in Melbourne. Chi has a longstanding interest in non-malignant palliative care and works closely with the lung and heart transplant teams at the Alfred Hospital. Chi’s other areas of interest include psycho-oncology, rural health, clinical supervision and mentoring, and partnering with consumers.

Belinda Geelhuizen

Belinda Geelhuizen has been working for St Vincent’s Correctional Health since March 2006 and has been the Nurse Unit Manager for the sub-acute inpatient unit since March 2008.

She has a passion working with the marginalised community and with the current expansion of the unit they will be able to provide more intensive care which includes end of life care. That is very exciting.

Sharee Johnson

Sharee is a registered Psychologist, Executive Coach and Meditation Teacher. She is the founder of Coaching for Doctors and has spent the past six years in deep conversation with doctors, individually and in groups, seeking to understand their experience of work and their goals for their own futures and the future of the health system.

She has taken to heart the finding that healthy providers of healthcare achieve better health outcomes for patients and have happier, longer term careers.

She is also the founder and creator of RESPOND, an on demand wellbeing program designed specifically for all people who work in healthcare to develop the skills they need to be well and to reduce the risk of burnout.

All of Sharee’s work is about giving individual people the skills they need to have a long term sustainable career in health that is fulfilling and joyful.

Dr Greg Mewett
MBBS, FRACGP, DRCOG, Postgrad Dip Pall Med, FAChPM, Grad Cert Clin Teaching
Palliative Care Physician, Ballarat Health Services
Grampians Regional Palliative Care Team

Greg was a GP in Eaglehawk (Bendigo) for 22 years during which time he developed a special interest in palliative care and was an educator & advisor in the Loddon-Mallee Regional Palliative Care Team.

He left general practice in 2004 and retrained as a palliative care physician in Melbourne, completing his Fellowship in 2007. After a year as a locum consultant in the north-west of Tasmania, he commenced as a palliative care physician at Ballarat Health Services and the Grampians Regional Palliative Care Team. He has been in this role for the past 11 ½ years.

Greg has developed a special interest in clinical ethics particularly as related to end-of-life care and decision-making. He was a member of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Implementation Taskforce appointed by the state Minister of Health and DHHS to oversee the introduction of the VAD legislation in Victoria. He is a “conscientious provider” of VAD to eligible patients and combines this with his usual specialist palliative care practice.

Dr Umbreen Qazi
Dr Umbreen Qazi is a palliative care physician working at Alfred Health and Banksia community palliative care service. Her interests include non-malignant palliative care, malignant pain management, clinical supervision and education.

Gillian Coult
Gillian began her career as a teacher in London before moving to Melbourne and studying Social Work at the University of Melbourne.  For most of her career she has worked in chronic illness and both community based and inpatient palliative care.  As well as degrees in Social Work and English, she has completed the Graduate Certificate in Grief Counselling from the Centre for Grief Education.
Gillian has several roles including Social Worker in an inpatient palliative care unit and Grampians Region Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator.

Dr Tamsin Bryan
Tamsin Bryan is a Palliative Medicine Physician at St Vincents Hospital, Melbourne where she has been the lead physician for the Palliative Care Consultation Service for the last 11 years. She has an interest in the provision of equitable and high-quality palliative and end of life care to those patient groups experiencing vulnerabilities, in particular those that are incarcerated, and has extensive experience in the provision of palliative care to prisoner patients admitted to St Vincent’s Hospital.

Lesley Smith

Coordinator, Body Donor Program, University of Melbourne.

Lesley has held the position of coordinating the Body Donor Program since July 2013. In addition to administrative functions, she liaises regularly with registered donors, prospective donors, and family members/friends. This can be at varying times during a donor’s involvement with the program. She also supports the technical and academic staff where required.

Lesley, in conjunction with an academic, organises the Annual Commemorative Thanksgiving Service to honour the sacrifice donors have made to further medical education.

Prior to holding her current position Lesley worked for the State Coroner in the Initial Investigation Office (IIO) at the Coroners Court of Victoria. She was employed in this position for 20 years. During this time Lesley performed daily tasks such as taking reports of death, organising post-mortem examinations to occur, liaising with family members with a person has died suddenly, supporting family members while formally identifying their loved ones and coordinating any response to disasters such as the Black Saturday Bush Fires. She also held the position of a Team Leader in the IIO supporting staff to perform the roles previously mentioned.

Working for the State Coroner emerged from her past career as a Deputy Registrar working in many Magistrates Courts in Victoria such as the Melbourne, Prahran and Ringwood Courts.

Tony Dupleix

(B Ag Sci) Hons. Prime lamb farmer at Camperdown.

Manager of Upright Burials. Established 1984. Co-owner with my wife Lois.

All my adult life, I’ve had a respect for, an interest in and a curiosity about mortality and the way people deal with it.

Upright Burials was established to provide a simple, natural and economical burial service as a respectful alternative to the mainstream funeral industry.

Libby Moloney

Libby Moloney, of Natural Grace, is a Holistic Funeral Director practising natural, culturally sensitive, family led funeral care. She curates authentic and empowering after death rituals and facilitates deeply moving, profoundly healing and surprisingly hopeful funeral ceremonies and experiences. Libby advocates for change in natural choices for the disposal of our dead.

Libby is a founding committee member of the Natural Death Advocacy Network (NDAN), a not-for-profit organisation committed to demystifying and reclaiming death and dying in our community as well as the founding Chair of The Willow Tree Foundation Ltd; a not-for-profit organisation that supports Australian families when a child dies. Passionately committed to raising awareness about natural cemeteries in Australia, Libby works actively with community groups to establish natural sanctuaries for the interment of our dead.

Annie De Jong

Chief Executive Officer, Ballarat General Cemeteries Trust

Annie appointed at the CEO of Ballarat General Cemeteries Trust in July 2015. For the last 5 years Annie has had the honour of caring for the Ballarat New Cemetery and the Ballarat Old Cemetery ensuring that these beautiful community assets are managed efficiently and within the expectations of the Ballarat Community.

At Ballarat Cemeteries we offer botanic options as well as traditional choice for Burial, Cremation and memorialisation.

Active in the broader community, Annie is currently an executive member of the Ballarat neighborouhood houses and a member of Compassionate Cities steering Committee.
Annie has over 23 years in Local Government, with Senior Executive level experience within diverse leadership roles including CIO and Governance. Directly working with elected members, community groups and organisation operations.

Annie has extensive experience in Customer Service/Engagement, leadership, people management, risk management and business reviews to ensure the delivery of efficient and effective public sector services. A long history in the management of current and historic public records.