An Update from the University of Colorado Palliative Care Program

YOUR IMPACT ON OUR PROGRESS An Update from the University of Colorado Palliative Care Program | 2017 - 2018

$7.5 million

THANK YOU! Thanks to your support over the past year, the University of Colorado Palliative Care Program at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus continues to expand its reach and make a positive impact on more lives. As part of our community of support, you have helped alleviate suffering for countless patients with progressive and advanced illnesses, along with their families and caregivers, while ensuring future generations of health professionals gain access to palliative care skills.

This update highlights some of the many ways your support has advanced our efforts in clinical care, educational training and research. By investing in the CU Palliative Care Program, you are investing in a bright future.

Jean S. Kutner, MD, MSPH Chief Medical Officer University of Colorado Hospital Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs University of Colorado School of Medicine

Creative Connections: The Natalie Kutner Creative Arts Therapy Program By Angela Wibben, MM, MT-BC & Amy Jones, MA, LPC, ATR A new publication by Palliative Care Art Therapist Amy Jones and Music Therapist Angela Wibben showcases art and music works by patients, families and their caregivers. apple.co/2LPC8vD

9News Features Creative Arts Therapy Team Before Johnny lost his wife, Ellen, to cancer, the Creative Arts Therapy Program at UCHealth recorded her heartbeat and set it to a song. This unique and compassionate approach to healing ensures that those like Johnny and his family have a piece of their loved one they can listen to forever. bit.ly/2LHyirQ

research funds secured in the past year

890

patient and caregiver creative arts therapy sessions since 2017

1451

patients served in 2018 (UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, UCHealth Palliative Care Clinic, telehealth location)

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“Patients and families tell us that creative arts therapy makes them feel vibrant, connected, and engaged in their lives beyond illness.

Through dedicated time to creative expression at the bedside, we are helping individuals enhance their sense of control and choice – ensuring an experience that is meaningful and personal, and truly their own.”

–Angela Wibben, MM, MT-BC and Amy Jones, MA, LPC, ATR

IMPACTING MORE PATIENTS AND FAMILIES

Your support helps us reach more patients and their loved ones each year. We served 260 new patients in the Palliative Care Clinic this past year – an increase of over 50 percent. Our telehealth program extended care to patients hospitalized in rural and mountain communities in January, and is the first of its kind in the nation. Telehealth will be available to our Palliative Care Clinic patients later this year so that patients can receive care without leaving their homes.

CREATING COMPASSION WITH PALLIATIVE CARE

Since its launch last year, the Natalie Kutner Palliative Care Creative Arts Therapy Program has been impactful and growing, melding the creative skills and therapeutic training of our art and music therapists to serve the emotional and self-expression of patients and their families. The program is an important approach to care that employs modes of creative arts applications such as collage, jewelry making, songwriting, heartbeat recordings, and photography to help patients cope with the existential pain of a serious illness. Since the program’s inception, we have completed more than 890 patient and caregiver creative arts therapy sessions. This summer we will be providing Creative Arts Therapy Workshops for outpatients. With your help, we are expanding palliative care creative arts therapy here while also contributing to setting the global standard of care in this vital area.

TRAINING FUTURE GENERATIONS

Our Fellowship Program in Hospice and Palliative Medicine is one of only 131 accredited programs in the U.S. Since our accreditation in 2010, 18 physicians have completed our Palliative Medicine Fellowship training. This one-year clinical fellowship focuses on training palliative medicine physician specialists who have completed primary medical training in one of 10 specialties. This year, we are training a pediatrician, one of Colorado’s few palliative specialists who are prepared to work with seriously ill children and their families. We are also the first program to have a dedicated neuro-palliative focus to train physicians specializing in meeting the unique needs of patients and families affected by neurological illness. In addition, we provide a certificate and a Master of Science program in Palliative Care, offered through the Graduate School at CU Anschutz.

Through our training programs, we are helping to meet the palliative needs in Colorado more broadly than ever before.

SETTING THE BAR NATIONALLY IN QUALITY OF CARE Your support has helped elevate us in this rapidly evolving field and make an impact on countless lives. We are nationally recognized as providers of the highest level of quality care to our patients and families with the Joint Commission Advanced Certification in Palliative Care. We are the only hospital in Colorado and part of 1 percent of hospitals nationally that have achieved this standard of care.

DEVELOPING NEW MODELS OF CARE Dr. Hillary Lum and her team introduced first-of-their-kind electronic tools to engage UCHealth patients in advance care planning. For example, through an electronic Medical Power of Attorney form, more than 2,000 patients since last July were able to communicate crucial decisions about their health care. In addition, we now offer advance care planning group visits to support meaningful conversations about advance care planning in primary care and cancer clinics. In order to extend these conversations into the community, we have trained more than 50 Colorado volunteers through our new Advance Care Planning Community Volunteer Certificate Program in partnership with The Denver Hospice and supported by the Colorado Health Foundation and Next Fifty Initiative. This summer, Dr. Lum’s team will also launch a one-stop resource for all Coloradans (www.

ColoradoCarePlanning.org). Through these initiatives, our teams are working to help more individuals and families share what is most important to them about their care with loved ones and health care providers.

ENHANCING THE EVIDENCE TO INFORM CARE

Our Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group (PCRC) is the country’s only research network that specifically focuses on palliative care. The PCRC leads, catalyzes, and empowers a community of researchers of all levels of experience. These investigators are developing an evidence base in order to take research from the bench to the bedside so that new treatments can reach patients more quickly than ever before. By leveraging the expertise of researchers, and data generated from multi-institutional studies, the PCRC ensures high-quality care and optimal well-being for those with serious illness and their caregivers. The PCRC includes more than 400 members and 150 participating sites, and has recently been awarded 5 years of additional funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research (www.palliativecareresearch.org).

Our progress is possible because of you. Thank you for helping us transform lives.

View this Palliative Care update online: supportcuanschutz.ucdenver.edu/palliativecare Learn more: CU Anschutz Office of Advancement | anschutzadvancement@ucdenver.edu | 303.724.8227 Make a gift to the Palliative Care Program: giving.cu.edu/palliative Make a gift to the Natalie Kutner Palliative Care Creative Arts Therapy Program: giving.cu.edu/CreativeArtsTherapy