End-of-Life Tool Kit: Utilizing the Arts

In this online workshop, folklorist, poet, and Founding Director of City Lore Steve Zeitlin, PhD, joins the President of the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation Phyllis Arn Zimmer,  MN, FNP, FAANP, FAAN.  Our guests are two of our all-time favorite storytellers, Regi Carpenter, a storyteller and author who uses the power of stories to help others deal with grief, loss, and mental health issues, and Annie Lanzillotto, poet, storyteller, performance artist, and legendary Bronx Tomboy. Together with you, our participants, we will explore how the Arts can be used as part of an end-of-life toolkit. Whether you are a caregiver, a healthcare professional or doula, a hospice worker, a human being confronting your own death or memorializing the passing of a family member or friend, we explore how song, dance, poetry, and visual art can serve as tools to gracefully navigate the impossibly difficult final chapter of our fragile existence. We also introduce our accredited e-learning course, Harnessing the Power of the Arts for End-of-Life Care, available for free on the myCME platform, and relevant not only to healthcare professionals but to caregivers as well.   Using compelling videos and personal stories, the course offers guidance and inspiration for using the Arts as a clinical tool for supporting patients’ beliefs, traditions, and customs and easing the final passage. At the close or our Zoom, we ask you to share your own stories about how different art forms have helped you deal with grief and loss.