KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

 Dr Kathryn Mannix 
Writer and End of Life Care Campaigner, UK
Retired Palliative Care Medicine Consultant and Cognitive Behaviour Therapist

Kathryn has spent her medical career working with people who have incurable, advanced illnesses. Starting in cancer care and changing career to become a pioneer of the new discipline of palliative medicine, she has worked as a palliative care consultant in teams in hospices, hospitals and in patients' own homes, optimising quality of life even as death is approaching. She is passionate about public education, and having qualified as a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist in 1993, she started the UK's (possibly the world's) first CBT clinic exclusively for palliative care patients, and devised 'CBT First Aid' training to enable palliative care colleagues to add new skills to their repertoire for helping patients.

Keynote Topic:   Talking about dying

Abstract:   Human mortality rates remain 100%, no matter how far medical science progresses. This makes the ability to discuss dying with our patients a core communication skill for all clinicians. From "What if ...?" questions raised by our most robust patients, to getting down to personal end of life Advance Care Planning with our patients with Long Term Conditions, to walking alongside our dying patients in their final days, this talk will consider the ways in which we can listen better, help our patients to digest unwelcome news, and be prepared to support patients and their loved ones at their deathbeds.

 Jo Hathaway 
Senior Advisor, Palliative Care, Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand

Jo was born and raised in Canterbury and has called many places home, both in Aotearoa and overseas.
Jo's interest in palliative care was sparked in the '90s, while working as a nurse in oncology and haematology wards in London. On returning to Aotearoa, Jo was employed by her local hospice and she has continued working in palliative care for the last 25 years. Jo's roles have spanned numerous clinical, academic and leadership areas, including hospice, hospital, university, and aged residential care settings.
She is passionate about working collaboratively and is very excited about the opportunities her national role with Te Whatu Ora brings to ensure palliative care services meet the needs of everyone in Aotearoa, especially those traditionally underserved by health services.

Keynote Topic:   Building a case for change in palliative care

Abstract:   Support to die well is a crucial part of integrated, people-centred health services. Ninety percent of all deaths in Aotearoa New Zealand would benefit from quality and timely palliative care input. Unfortunately, many people do not receive the services they need to relieve their symptoms and suffering at the end of their lives and the inequities for patients and whānau are stark. We need to re-look at the way palliative care services are planned, funded, delivered, and measured in Aotearoa. The first step is to build our case for change to ensure equitable care access and outcomes, improve the consistency, quality and visibility of care, and ensure our services can meet the rapidly growing demand for palliative and end-of-life care.

 Heather McLeod 
Adjunct Professor, Actuarial Science, University of Cape Town
Extraordinary Professor, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Stellenbosch

Heather is an actuary by training and has worked on healthcare financing, health policy and social security policy for more than 30 years. Heather is originally from South Africa, where she consulted to the National Treasury and Department of Health, served on statutory bodies, and developed post-graduate courses in healthcare financing.
While still a student, she attended a lecture by Elisabeth K�bler-Ross, author of "On Death and Dying". This sparked a lifelong interest in palliative care. She trained as a volunteer at St Lukes Hospice in Cape Town and consulted to the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa.
Heather married into a family that whakapapas to Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Rangitihi and Ngāi Tahu, and has lived in Aotearoa since 2010. She worked for the Ministry of Health, supporting the Palliative Care Council from 2012 to 2015. She subsequently consulted to the Ministry of Health, the Palliative Care Advisory Panel (PCAP), Hospice New Zealand, New Zealand Aged Care Association, and several DHBs. In 2023 she worked with Te Whatu Ora to update the evidence base for healthcare at the end of life.
A practical academic and researcher, Heather was an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Nursing, University of Auckland, from 2016 to 2022. She continues to have visiting appointments at the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch.
In 2023, Heather completed a Masters in Climate Change Science and Policy and increasingly works on climate change issues. That mahi is dedicated to her two mokupuna. She is a country girl at heart, living with her horse in Hanmer Springs.

Keynote Topic: Setting Sail - The Strategic Challenges for Palliative Care

Abstract:
Inspired by Te Rā, the Māori sail woven from harakeke, and inspired by traditional navigation, we look behind us to see where we have come from, and we look forward to the near horizon and the distant horizon.
We start with the winds that drive the strategic challenges - the demographic changes and the ageing population. There will be more deaths and those deaths will be at much older ages. Deaths at older ages mean more frailty and dementia at the end of life. This is true for Māori and non-Māori.
We are a woven and interconnected health and social security system. The end of life may occur in public hospital, in aged residential care, a hospice IPU, at home supported by hospice, or at home with or without other support. We look at the patterns of care and how people move between places of care at the end of life. And we use those patterns to project what might be needed ahead.
The greatest risk is if capacity in aged residential care is not available, and more people need to be cared for at home. There are large demographic pressures on caring as well, reducing the capacity to provide complex care at home. Pressure on one thread, translates into pressure on other parts of the sail. How we navigate the future is in our collective hands. We need new visions of the models of care and leaders who will weave people together.

 Prof Kelli Stajduhar  
University of Victoria, BC, Canada

Dr Kelli Stajduhar, RN, PhD, FCAHS is a professor in the School of Nursing and a research fellow at the Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria and research affiliate with Island Health.
She has worked in oncology, palliative care, and gerontology for almost 30 years as a practicing nurse, educator, and researcher. Her clinical work and research has focused on health service needs for those at the end-of-life and their families, and on the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations.
Stajduhar has 285+ academic publications and presentations. She is lead investigator on multiple research projects including international research collaboratives on family caregiving; projects evaluating the integration of a palliative approach in acute and residential care settings, and national studies on access to end-of-life care for structurally vulnerable populations and care experiences of caregivers providing palliative care in the home.
Student supervision is an important part of her research program working with undergraduate, Master's, PhD, medical, and post-doctoral students. In the community, she mentors clinical scientists and other highly qualified personnel in order to support engagement in research projects.
Stajduhar is the recipient of numerous awards including the Craigdarroch Award of Excellence for Knowledge Mobilization, the Award of Excellence for Nursing Research from the College of Registered Nurses of BC and the Canadian Association of University School of Nursing, Academic of the Year from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and Fellow of the Canadian Association of Nurses.

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