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Current Programs


Funded in 2018 by the Mount Zion Health Fund, the MERI Center seeks to promote “primary palliative care” (link to glossary) within the Mount Zion community, bringing symptom management, advance care planning, and compassionate care to those facing serious illness.

Our programs also address the need for improved communication skills and education about Palliative Care for staff and clinicians at UCSF.

Core Components of MERI Center

  • Professional Education & Training in symptom management and communication
  • Consultation, Supervision, & Support for clinical teams—Resiliency Trainings, Team Support for clinicians, faculty and administrative teams
  • Champions to disseminate Primary Palliative Care to their immediate colleagues as well as to customize and institutionalize Primary Palliative Care education within their programs’ routine clinical processes, training initiatives, and program culture (e.g. Quality Improvement Projects) (this should link to Works in Progress)
  • Community Programming to offer public programs to promote primary palliative care education and support for patients, family caregivers, and the greater San Francisco community (e.g. Free Advance Care Planning workshops, Family Caregiver Resources, End-of-life Doula Trainings, Public Education, Creative Expression Programs)

Patients, families, clinical staff, and clinicians are supported with training and routine systems for:

  • Advance Care Planning education and training ( “What Matters Most Workshops” (link)for patients, families, and staff)
  • Symptom Management (development of pain management physician order sets and complementary medicine resources)
  • A national palliative care education resource list
  • Resiliency Promotion for professional and family caregivers(with support groups and in-person and online courses)

Next Steps:

  • Family Caregiver trainings—in person and on-line
  • Advance Care Planning sessions on-line
  • “Poetry Café” session in the Mt Zion Cancer Center using poetry as a healing resource for patients, starting in January 2020
  • “End-of-Life Doula” Trainings –“Care-giving and Care-receiving at the End of Life”  (starting October, 2019)
  • Connecting clinicians to meaning in their work through programs in creative expression such as poetry, art, drama, and music
  • Educating the public by bringing end-of-life awareness and care into the public square