Facing Life’s End: Understanding death anxiety and spiritual wellbeing

PROGRAMME

The Big Trip: how psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy may alleviate existential distress at end of life

Dr Margaret Ross

Having recently completed a phase IIb clinical trial investigating psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of depression and anxiety in terminally ill patients, Dr Ross will discuss clinical observations, cautions and potential for PAP treatment for palliative patients suffering existential distress.  Dr Ross will also reflect on the unique potential for PAP to facilitate profound spiritual experiences for the dying patient, helping them transcend the fear of death.

Self-assessment in Spiritual Care: a case study of an empty room

Professor Piret Paal

According to the vision of the World Health Organization, spirituality is an integral part of human existence. Spirituality is seen as an all-encompassing essence of the human being that requires appreciation and respect. Spirituality is closely related to the search for meaning, the sense of connectedness, and the feeling and experience of belonging. In my presentation, I explore the question of why and how people feel they are ‘not spiritual’. The presentation is theoretically inspired by Ricoeur’s theory of narrative meaning-making and the search for explanations of life issues. On the other hand, it is a methodological proposal for recording and making sense of emotional, social and relational experiences.

Questions and Answers

Moderated by Associate Professor Mark Boughey

Questions can be submitted using the Chat function during the webinar. 

SPEAKERS

Dr Margaret Ross

St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Australia

Dr Margaret Ross PsyD is the Chief Principal Investigator and clinical lead for Australia’s first psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy study treating depression and anxiety in the terminally ill.  Dr Ross combines oversight of this ground-breaking trial with clinical work in her role as Senior Clinical Psychologist and Researcher at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne and also trains clinicians in emerging psychedelic assisted therapy drug trials and specialist clinicians in psychosocial aspects of palliative care & oncology.

Professor Piret Paal

Paracelsus Medical University, Austria

Prof. Dr. Piret Paal works at Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg as professor and head of the Institute for Palliative Care.  She is a newly appointed member of the Executive Committee of the international Collaborative Best Care for the Dying, Chair of the EAPC Educational Reference Group, and Action Lead of the EU-funded project “COllaboratively DEveloped culturallY Appropriate and inclusive Assessment tool for Palliative Care EDUcation,” which aims to establish quality indicators for the implementation of a gold standard for high-quality palliative care education and training (2023-2027).  Prof. Paal is the author of an EAPC white paper on multidisciplinary spiritual care education in palliative care (2020).  Her research interests include spiritual care, palliative care, and global health. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1341-3248

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