2500 Hinkle Dr #56, Denton, Texas 76201 United States
LTC ETHICS CONSULTANTS
How Do I Help Senior Care Professionals and their Patients/Residents?
Difficult choices for patient care are increasingly made outside the hospital walls. Patients may be at home or in long-term care facilities. The decisions aren't any easier in those settings than when the patient is hospitalized, but there is definitely less help available in the community to assist families and professionals in exploring ethical questions related to patient/resident care. As a certified healthcare ethics consultant (HEC-C)* who works in the long-term care community, I offer support to you and your patients/residents and patient families.
*What is a certified healthcare ethics consultant? This is a relatively new certification for practicing bioethicists. A bioethicist is a healthcare professional who focuses on the ethical dilemmas in medicine and medical research. A bioethicist typically has either a Ph.D. in bioethics or an underlying terminal degree (MD - medical doctor, JD - attorney, PhD in philosophy, nursing, theology, social work, medical humanities) plus a graduate degree or certificate in bioethics. In my case, I have a law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and practiced for many years as an elder law attorney, where I worked with capacity issues and guardianship, powers of attorney, cases of elder abuse and financial exploitation, Wills and trusts and the probate of estates. I then obtained a master's degree in bioethics and health care policy from the Neiswanger Institute of the Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago. In addition to the underlying educational requirements, bioethicists must have extensive ethics consultation and teaching experience before they are allowed to sit for a national examination given by our primary professional organization, the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities (ASBH). Upon passing that exam, a bioethicist is credentialed as an HEC-C, Healthcare Ethics Consultant - Certified.
Our Ethics Services
- Healthcare ethics consultations in the long-term care setting (at home or in care facilities) to help residents/patients, their families and care professionals analyze ethical issues in difficult care decisions
- Ethics training for senior care professionals to enable them to integrate ethical concepts into every day on-the-job choices
- Assistance in the development of policies and procedures that reflect the senior care professional's ethical values
- Educational programs (including CEU's) for senior care professionals, long-term care residents and their families on a variety of aging issues
Many of these services can be offered by phone or on line.