DR. IRA BYOCK AT REGIS: “MAKE THE RIGHT WAY THE EASY WAY”

Last week, Regis College, together with The Parmenter Foundation, Parmenter Home Care and Hospice, and Honoring Choices Massachusetts, sponsored a very well attended public forum, titled : Envisioning And Achieving A Brighter Future. Held at Regis’s Casey Theatre, Dr. Ira Byock, one of the nation’s foremost leaders in palliative and hospice care, and a long time advocate for the rights of patients and families, was featured. In addition to addressing the gathering, Dr. Byock led roundtable discussions consisting of clinical educators, hospital leaders, palliative care professionals, and business leaders, and spoke with medical, social work and nursing students, to explore his fundamental message that “serious illness is intensely personal and is only partly medical.”

During the conference Dr. Byock championed his message that once “we make that shift of recognition”, that “the best medical treatment respects the person’s values, preferences and priorities.”  He therefore advocates “working in partnership with patients all through their lifetime,” to honor individual choice and to achieve “the best care possible.”

Based on that framework, Dr. Byock challenged attendees to have “the courage of that belief” arguing that as providers, family members and patient advocates we must all say that “to be good care, that care must be consistent with people’s personal values and goals.” Less than that is “simply not adequate and we need to stop supporting it.”

Ultimately Dr. Byock inspired each of us to “reward good, person-centered care, and to dis-incentive bad care.”  He encouraged us as consumers to use our “powerful voices to name the inadequate care and not tolerate it anymore.” By doing so he believes that we can collectively  “make the right way the easy way” and reach for “innovative change by collaborating with like-minded teams for true person-centered care.”

This short interview video is a good introduction to Dr. Byock’s message.

You can also view Dr. Byock’s public forum address.

Post note. We thank our Community Partners, Regis College, The Parmenter Foundation, and Parmenter Home Care and Hospice, for their vision and commitment in bringing Dr. Byock and all of us together to achieve a brighter future.

Our deepest gratitude to Dr. Byock and Yvonne Corbeil for sharing their thoughtful insights and inspirational wisdom.