5^th World Congress on Hospice and Palliative Care 18-19, July-2018 Melbourne Australia

Dr. Carolyn Messner, DSW, MSW, OSW-C, BCD, FAPOS is Director of Education and Training at CancerCare where she pioneered the use of teleconference technology to bring evidence-based, psychosocially sensitive cancer-related information to people living with cancer, cancer survivors and their caregivers. A national and international speaker and author, Dr. Messner’s expertise includes the psychosocial impact of cancer on patients and their caregivers; palliative care & hospice care; methods to design patient education interventions, and cancer in the workplace. Dr. Messner is a prolific author of book chapters and articles. Dr. Messner is coeditor of the inaugural Handbook of Oncology Social Work: Psychosocial Care for People with Cancer (Oxford University Press, 2015). She is a former president of the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) and serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. She is on the editorial boards of: Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, Journal of Cancer Education, The Oncology Nurse, The Journal of Interprofessional Practice, and Conquer Magazine. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Dr. Messner’s many honors include: CancerCare Hope and Help Award; Fellow, American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS); Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine; AOSW’s Oncology Social Worker of the Year Award; American Cancer Society’s Oncology Social Work Leadership Award; Hyman J. Weiner Award from the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care; and the Individual Award for Creativity in Health Care Practice and Scholarship from the National Academies of Practice (NAP). She is a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Practitioner in Social Work, NAP. Dr. Messner received the degree of Doctor of Social Welfare (DSW) from the City University of New York with a Doctoral Fellowship Award in Social Welfare; and The Ohio State School of Social Work National Doctoral Award. She earned a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from New York University School of Social Work with a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Fellowship, and her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Clark University, graduating cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

palliative care & hospice care

Michael Ian Rothenberg, Ph.D, LCSW is a Board Certified Clinical Sexologist, Certified Sex Therapist, Psychotherapist and the Founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Counseling and Sexual Health of Winter Park, Florida. As a sexuality educator, Dr. Rothenberg has held a long term faculty position, in Orlando, Florida, at the University of Central Florida (UCF), School of Social Work, where he developed the curriculum in Human Sexuality and taught courses on human sexuality and sexual behavior. Dr. Rothenberg, a former Hospice Social Worker, credited with developing the Sexological sub-field of Thanatological Clinical Sexology (the study of sexuality, death and dying), has published and been quoted in numerous articles relating to human sexuality and lectures, both nationally and internationally, at universities, hospitals and hospices, on topics related to human sexuality, sexual behavior and sexual health.

human sexuality, sexual behavior and sexual health with Hospice and Palliative Care

Dr. Mellar P. Davis, MD, FCCP FAAHPM is a member of the Palliative Care Department, and Section Head, Geisinger Medical System Danville, PA. He has been a member of the Geisinger Medical Staff since August 2016. In his role as Section Head, Dr Davis is responsible for developing palliative care services throughout the Geisinger Medical System including outpatient and inpatient services. In addition, Dr Davis works with the Geisinger Hospice Services to develop and coordinate care within the central region. Dr Davis was a member of the Cleveland Clinic Palliative Care section, Taussig Cancer Institute and fellowship director until joining the Geisinger Medical System. He was the co- chair of the Palliative Care Study Group of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care (MASCC) and a past board member since 2010. He is a Professor of Medicine in The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, since 2009 and elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2010. He is Editor in Chief of Progress on Palliative Care. His present duties within the Associate Editor in Chief of PC FACS (Fast Article Critical Summary for Clinicians in Palliative Care).

Palliative care

Paulina Taboada (Chile) is Medical Doctor, specialized Internal Medicine, with clinical experience in Palliative Care. She holds a PhD in Philosophy by the International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein (IAP). Dr. Taboada is Associate Professor for Internal Medicine and Bioethics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile since 1996 and is the former Director of the University’s Center for Bioethics (2005-2011) and also the former Director of the PUC’s Masters Programe in Bioethics (2003 – 2012). Her area of particular academic interest is related to “dying with dignity” and ethical issues at the end of life. She has participated in a number of national and international research projects and published a number of contributions in specialized journals and books, both in the fields of Bioethics and Palliative Medicine (e.g.: “Person, Society and Value. Towards a Personalist Concept of Health”, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002; “Medicina Paliativa y Cuidados Continuos” Ediciones Universidad Católica, 2010; “Sedation at the end-of-life. An interdisciplinary approach.” Springer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2015.) In 2001, Dr. Taboada participated as a Professional Adviser in the work the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Human Genetics and Other New Technologies in Modern Medicine, in Brussels, Belgium. Since 2005, she is Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, in the Vatican. In 2010 she was awarded with the Manuel Velasco Suarez Award for the Excellency in Bioethics.

palliative care

S Irudaya Rajan is Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Currently, he is the President of the Association of Gerontology (AGI, India) as well as Kerala Economic Association (KEA). He has three decades of research experience and has published extensively in national and international journals on social, economic, health and demographic facets of population ageing. He is the lead author of the book India’s Elderly: Burden or Challenge? (1999) and has edited the books Social Security for the Elderly: Experiences from South Asia (2008); India’s Aged: Needs and Vulnerability (2017); Elderly Care in India: Societal and State Responses (Springer, 2017) and Abuse and Neglect of the Elderly in India (Springer, 2018). He developed the first longitudinal Ageing Survey in Kerala (India) in 2004; repeated every three years, it completed its fifth wave in 2016 and will enter its sixth in 2019. The second longitudinal Ageing Survey in Kerala started in 2013, completed its second wave in 2016 and will enter its third wave in 2019. Professor Rajan has been involved in several projects on ageing funded by the United Nations (UN), United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), World Bank (WB), International Labour Organization (ILO), Helpage International, South Asian Network of Economic Institutes, Indo-Dutch Program on Alternatives in Development (IDPAD), Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and International Development Research Centre. He has also undertaken considerable research on international migration and is the editor of two series – India Migration Report and South Asia Migration report – as well as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Migration and Development.

Ageing survey and palliative care