Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians

CANADIAN SOCIETY OF PALLIATIVE CARE PHYSICIANS Monday, July 13, 2015 Teleconference 9 AM PST / 10 AM MST / 11 AM CST / 1200 EST / 1300 ATL / 1350 NL

PRESENT: Monica Branigan, Bernard Lapointe, David Henderson, Susan MacDonald, Ted St. Godard, Anne Boyle, Stephen Singh, Stephanie Connidis, Bruno Gagnon, Leonie Herx, Michelle Veer (Recorder).

REGRETS: Kim Taylor

1.0Call to order at 0905 h  Addition to agenda: Undergrad Narrative Award TOR.  Addition to agenda: Letter from the Christian Medical Dental Society.  The majority of the meeting will be spent discussing the CMA Resolutions and all the other items will be shortened.

2.0Minutes Approval – Susan  June 8th T-CON Minutes o Motion by Dave Henderson, seconded by Stephanie Connidis to pass minutes from June 8th teleconference. Carried.

3.0Education – Susan  Conference Debrief – Leonie et al o Nothing to report.  Report on Undergrad Committee meeting – Anne Boyle o Nothing to report.  Report on Postgrad Committee Meeting – Dave Henderson o Nothing to report.  Undergrad Narrative Award – Anne Boyle o Anne Boyle asked that if anyone has any comments on the TOR please let them know, would like approval to move forward. o Approval was not completed at the time of the meeting. o Michelle Veer emailed out the Undergrad Narrative Award TOR on July 16, 2015 and the Board individually responded. o MOTION: Susan motioned and Bernard seconded to approve the TOR for the Undergrad Narrative Award. Carried.

4.0Advocacy & Partnerships – Susan  Health Canada o Nothing heard of the recent submission.  PAS Working Group o Monica went through the process of sending out applications, 19 applications and the committee chose 8 people. o Representation of all geographically as they could, vulnerable populations, academics, rural. o First meeting held on July 9. o Discussed the resolution that has already been accepted by CMA; conscious objection, and that if there was motion received from the CSPCP it would be considered redundant. o Recommend not putting forward an objection o Task ahead, provide feedback on first 2 motions circulated. o Give big picture items that everyone can agree on, instead of line by line. o Suggestion of F2F the day before Board meetings.  CMA Resolutions – status and/or approval o Email from Monica from CMA motions for discussion with a deadline of July 13, 2015. o Current wording: The CMA will advocate that all Canadians are informed of, and have access to, a high quality palliative approach to care, including Canadians with a life limiting illness who are considering assisted dying. o Stephanie discussed the rationale for how she came to this wording. o Discussion ensued. o MOTION: Leonie Herx motioned and Dave Henderson seconded to change the wording from ‘assisted dying’ to ‘assisted death’. Carried. o Suggested wording: The CMA will advocate that information about, and access to, a high quality palliative approach to care, is available to all Canadians, including those with a life limiting illness who are considering assisted death. o Everyone agreed that the suggested wording move forward. o More discussion ensued. o Wording suggested: The Canadian Medical Association will advocate that discussions of, and access to, a high quality palliative approach to care, is available to all Canadians, including those with a life limiting illness who are considering assisted death. o Rationale explained by Monica. o Discussion ensued. o Motion #2 agreed upon with the removal of the word ‘physician’. o Geriatric Society will review and respond quickly. o ACTION: Stephanie to send to Dave asap. o ACTION: Board to forward all suggested stakeholders to Stephanie. o ACTION: Dave will get approval from Geriatrics and send to Monica. o Final deadline at midnight tonight for CMA Resolutions.

5.0Member Engagement & Communication  Membership invitations results – Michelle o Michelle updated the Board that since the reminder letters that were distributed in June the membership has increased by 21 members. o 60 previous members from 2014 have not renewed. o Current total: 382; 93 of those are brand new applicants.

6.0 Letter from Christian Medical Dental Society o Susan received an email from Valerie Schulz asking her to contact the lawyer representing this group. o Thorough discussion with lawyer, Larry Walden and they are looking for official support from our society about their position on conscious objection and not referring. o Susan responded asking for brief 1-2 page overview of request and would take to Board for review. o Reminded him of VMG and who we were and we are advocates of palliative care and there is a variety of opinions within. o Distributed letter last week and response from majority was ‘no’ to support this group at this particular time. o We don’t have a specific policy with response to support of groups like this. o Case by case assessment at this time, we do not have a policy regarding this. o Vetting committee may want to create this, as we may have more requests in the future with the growth of our Society. o Documentation will deter any disagreeance or questioning of policies. o ACTION: Board was not in favour of a particular alignment with this group. Susan will write him a letter of response.

ADJOURN: Meeting adjourned at 1010 h.

NEXT MEETING: Monday, August 10, 2015 by GoTo and Teleconference 9 AM PST / 10 AM MST / 11 AM CST / 1200 EST / 1300 ATL / 1350 NL