Nontombi Naomi Tutu

The challenges of growing black and female in apartheid South Africa has led Naomi Tutu to her present as an activist for human rights.  Those experiences taught how much we all lose when any of us is judged purely on physical attributes.  In her speeches she blends the passion for human dignity with humor and personal stories.

Ms Tutu is the third child Archbishop Desmond and Nomalizo Leah Tutu.  She was born in South Africa and has also lived in Lesotho, the United Kingdom and the United States.  She was educated in Swaziland, the US and England, and has divided her adult life between South Africa and the US.   Growing up the ‘daughter of …’ has offered Naomi Tutu many opportunities and challenges in her life.  Most important of these has been the challenge to find her own place in the world.  She has taken up the challenge and channeled the opportunities that she has been given to raise her voice as a champion for the dignity of all.

Her professional experience ranges from being a development consultant in West Africa, to being program coordinator for programs on Race and Gender and Gender-based Violence in Education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town.  In addition, Ms Tutu has taught at the Universities of Hartford and Connecticut and Brevard College in North Carolina. Ms Tutu has also led Truth and Reconciliation Workshops for groups dealing with different types of conflict. 

In addition to speaking, Ms Tutu is a consultant to two organizations which reflect the breadth of her involvement in issues of human rights.  The organizations are the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), founded by renowned author Riane Eisler and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Betty Williams, and the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa (FHSSA).

Centering Our Work: The Challenge to “Be” in the Midst of Having to “Do”

This opening plenary set the stage for three days of education about psychosocial, bereavement and spiritual needs and care at the end of life. In the midst of important  learning about best practices, innovative approaches, program development and community outreach and more - all crucial components of our work, Nontombi Naomi Tutu will remind us of the importance of “being” to our work. This “being” rather than “doing” perspective requires that we slow down, quiet and “center” ourselves and focus our attention on gleaning what patients and families truly desire from us rather than what we assume or decide they need. As she weaves stories and experiences from her work with other cultures and divergent worlds into essential messages we will take from this plenary, Ms. Tutu will challenge us to present our best and most authentic selves to those in our care, to honor their lives, stories and experiences and to understand how our care of others intertwines with our care of ourselves.

Through this plenary, you will learn to:

• Identify differences in the way people from different cultures approach the end of life;
• Discuss the difference between “being” vs. “doing” and the application of each to care of people at the end of life;
• Discuss the connection between professionals’ ability to identify and attend to their own needs for care and their ability to identify and attend to the care needs of  others;
• Identify the necessary and integral components of care for self and care of others.

Roshi Joan Halifax

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has worked in the area of death and dying for over thirty-five years and is Director of the Project on Being with Dying. She is Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her many books include “The Human Encounter with Death”, “The Fruitful Darkness”, and “Being with Dying: Compassionate End-of-Life Care Training Guide.”

Being with Dying: Compassion and Presence

Through this plenary, you will learn to:

• Discuss contemplative approaches to work with dying people;
• Identify contemplative, spiritual and psychological issues related to death and dying;
• Discuss the importance of community building and relationship-centered care;
• Identify elements of spiritual care of the dying and care-based ethics;
• Compare and contrast the relationship between pain and suffering;
• Practice mindfulness-based stress reduction.

Mary Raymer, MSW, LMSW

Mary Raymer, MSW, LMSW is a psychiatric social worker and marriage and family therapist who has served the terminally ill and their families for 27 years.  Mary serves as president and chief clinician for Raymer Psychotherapy and Consultation Services, P.C., where she specializes in complicated grief issues and life-threatening illness.  She has served in a variety of capacities in the hospice community including program CEO, Vice President and President of the Michigan Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Board, political advocate, educator and consultant.  Mary was the Social Work Chair for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization for six years.  In this role, Mary was responsible for the first national research project looking at social work outcomes in hospice care. 

Mary was also one of three team leaders for the $450,000.00 Michigan Partnership grant to improve end-of-life care funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was in charge of the community resource project, which was responsible for identifying and improving access issues to end-of-life care for underserved populations.  In this capacity, she has organized and facilitated focus groups in diverse communities and developed trainings and materials based on the input from each community interviewed.  In addition to publishing book chapters and articles, Mary lectures extensively to a wide variety of healthcare organizations on psychosocial aspects of end-of-life care and other life transitions. 

The Michigan Hospice and Palliative Care Organization has awarded her both the Hospice Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Hospice Leadership Award for her efforts in coalition building, advocacy, education and promotion of hospice care statewide. Mary is the recipient of a Project on Death in America Social Work Leadership Award and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s highest honor, the Heart of Hospice Award.  She is also one of the creators of and faculty for the national Social Work End-of-Life Education Project.

This plenary session examines a contextual framework for practice in America today, as well as identified the leadership responsibilities and opportunities that are inherent in our professional roles. There are numerous societal issues, public perceptions and political realities impacting the delivery of care at the end of life. Psychosocial, bereavement and spiritual professionals’ contributions are more crucial than ever before. In these challenging times, it is important that we are clear about our roles and responsibilities and that we are contributing in healthy and meaningful ways to the end-of-life healthcare continuum.

Through this plenary, you will learn to:

• Identify a contextual framework for care at the end of life;
• Articulate the importance of the role of psychosocial, bereavement and spiritual professionals;
• Discuss challenges inherent in the role of psychosocial, bereavement and spiritual professionals;
• Identify strategies for renewing our energies.