MORTAL CURIOSITY:
2022 End-of-Life
Virtual Conference Series
For more than two decades we have been providing end-of-life education in southern Arizona. In 2021, we went virtual, and reached over 1,000 attendees from across the nation and around the globe.
This year we invite you to satisfy your curiosity about mortality and important end-of-life topics through supportive and challenging discussions, presentations, film, and games. All are welcome to this free series of events.
All sessions are free of charge. Join us now!
Ambiguous Loss & Dementia: Living with Uncertainty January 20, 2022 | 6-7pm (MST)
Caregiver stress and burden may sometimes be misunderstood, with the real culprit being ambiguous loss - when the person is physically present but psychologically different from who they once were. Learn definitions and concrete strategies to infuse hope, meaning and promote self-care.
Presented by: Lori Nisson of Banner Alzheimer’s Institute
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall February 17, 2022 | 6-7pm (MST)
Film Screening and Panel discussion with documentary filmmaker, Edgar Barens, and co-founders of the Humane Prison Hospice Project-Ladybird Morgan and Marvin Mutch
Game Night - Morbid Curiosity: A Game About Death. March 17, 2022 | 6-7pm (MST)
Join us for a night of storytelling, trivia and fun as we gather to play Morbid Curiosity, a card game that challenges you to explore the greatest mystery of all-Death!
“I found that keeping track of who’s winning quickly takes a backseat to getting caught up in the conversations sparked by game play, which is precisely what I love about the Morbid Curiosity game."
— Haute Macabre from Morbid Curiosity Game website
Nursing Home Resident’ Autonomy in the Time of COVID April 21, 2022 | 6-7pm (MST)
How has the pandemic upended the lives and autonomy of nursing home residents?
Journalist and author Ann Neumann spent March and April of 2020 in Philadelphia, a city with one of the oldest, low-income communities of color in the country, reporting on systemic problems within the nursing home industry. Then Covid struck the facilities she had visited. What Neumann found was that the very same chronic problems that residents and experts had identified before the pandemic were the direct cause of the tragic number of deaths that took place across the country: the bouncing of patients from one facility to another because of payment rates; tragically low staffing; and business fraud.
During her presentation, Neumann will talk about the history of the industry's challenges, advocates' decades-long efforts to improve them, the unauthorized use of hydroxychloroquine in the early days of Covid, and the effects on elders who depend on these facilities for their care before, during, and after the pandemic.
Dividing Non-Titled Property Without Dividing Families May 19th, 2022 | 6-7pm (MST)
Dividing heirlooms can create touchy family situations. These items can sometimes bring out the worst in families, often at a time when emotions are high, after the death of a loved one. This seminar will help attendees learn how your family can prepare to pass on personal property without causing a family divide.
Learn how to start the conversation that will prepare your family for the inevitable. This webinar will help you define which of the belongings in your family has meaning for you and why. Attendees will learn how to have the discussion with family members and begin the process of division while avoiding emotional conflicts. We will also discuss ways to ensure that loving memories are passed down to future generations and how to make this a memory-filled experience and not one to dread.
Having these conversations early is always best; it is never too early, until it is too late.
Presented by: Carla Sutter, MSW, Director, AzHDR
Because Every Body Dies: Your Funeral Planning Rights and Options June 18th, 2022 | 6-7pm (MST/PDT)
The death of a loved one is never easy. Arranging affordable, dignified, meaningful care for someone who has died shouldn't add to the difficulties. This session is designed to help you make well-informed economical decisions about what you must purchase and what is optional when arranging for burial, cremation, or other after-death care.
Presented by: Martha Lundgren
Visibility Matters: LGBTQI+ and Aging September 15th, 2022 | 6-7:30pm (MST)
As LGBTQI+ people age and need supportive services to meet their aging goals, many of them question whether it is safe to share that they are LGBTQI+ due to stigma they have witnessed and experienced over their lifetimes.
When planning for end-of-life care, it is crucial to ensure LGBTQI+ people feel they can come out and be their authentic selves so that we can meet their unique needs.
Visibility Matters is a training for our community’s aging care providers, formal and informal, to ensure that older LGBTQI+ adults receive aging-related services that are welcoming, respectful, and safe for them. This session helps aging care professionals and volunteers become more informed, sensitive to, and supportive of the needs of LGBTQI+ older adults and their families.
Presented by: Sarah Bahnson
The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss October 20, 2022 | 6:00 - 7:00 pm (MST)
Loss of a loved one is something everyone experiences, and for as long as humans have existed, we have struggled when a loved one dies. Poets and playwrights have written about the dark cloak of grief, the deep yearning, and devastating heartache of loss. But until now, we have had little scientific perspective on this universal experience. Join us as we hear from author, Mary Frances O’Connor, renowned grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist talk about her new book, The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss; and learn what happens in our brain when we grieve.
Presented by: Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD
Psychedelics and End-of-Life Care November 17, 2022 | 6:00 - 7:30 pm (MST)
Psychedelics such as psilocybin have been shown to improve emotional wellbeing and help people change perspectives on challenging life realities. This session will explore the possible benefits that psychedelics can offer people nearing end-of-life to treat anxiety and other psychological symptoms. Mariavittoria Mangini will discuss the way psychedelics may be useful in existential distress at the end of life by changing obsessive, intrusive fear of death to a more nuanced consideration of what death means and represents. She will also share past and current research, and consider questions such as:
- How are we facing death and illness in the age of COVID? What is the current state of death in the culture at large?
- How will an individual experience of facing death be shifted when psychedelic therapy becomes widely available?
- How would a society that embraces psychedelic experiences approach death and dying?
Katja Allen will join the conversation to share her research in a field outside of end-of-life care entitled, “Psilocybin for the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.”
Presented by MariaVitorria Mangini, PhD, FNP and Katja Allen.
2022 End-of -Life Event Series Recordings
We offer recordings of our previously held series events. Our goal is to help educate our community on end-of-life topics and normalize conversations about the end-of-life journey. Please take a moment to view our recordings and learn more about our presenters.
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Join us for a night of storytelling, trivia and fun as we gather to play Morbid Curiosity, a card game that challenges you to explore the greatest mystery of all-Death!
-
Caregiver stress and burden may sometimes be misunderstood, with the real culprit being ambiguous loss - when the person is physically present but psychologically different from who they once were. Learn definitions and concrete strategies to infuse hope, meaning and promote self-care.
-
A moving cinéma vérité documentary that breaks through the walls of one of America’s oldest maximum-security prisons to tell the story of the final months in the life of a terminally ill prisoner and the hospice volunteers, they themselves prisoners, who care for him.
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During her presentation, Neumann will talk about the history of the industry's challenges, advocates' decades-long efforts to improve them, the unauthorized use of hydroxychloroquine in the early days of Covid, and the effects on elders who depend on these facilities for their care before, during, and after the pandemic.
-
Dividing heirlooms can create touchy family situations. These items can sometimes bring out the worst in families, often at a time when emotions are high, after the death of a loved one. This seminar will help attendees learn how your family can prepare to pass on personal property without causing a family divide.
-
The death of a loved one is never easy. Arranging affordable, dignified, meaningful care for someone who has died shouldn't add to the difficulties. This session is designed to help you make well-informed economical decisions about what you must purchase and what is optional when arranging for burial, cremation, or other after-death care.
Thank you to our amazing Universal Series Sponsor: The Connie Hillman Family Foundation
Shooting Star Series Sponsor
Morgan Stanley
Interested in Sponsoring
Our Educational Events
We’d love to talk with you!
2021 End-of -Life Event Series Recordings
We offer recordings of our previously held series events. Our goal is to help educate our community on end-of-life topics and normalize conversations about the end-of-life journey. Please take a moment to view our recordings and learn more about our presenters.