• Current Students
• Prospective Students
• Parents & Families
• Faculty & Staff
• Alumni
• Community
• Donors & Friends

Building Bridges, Building Connections

This is a unique one-of-a-kind workshop that focuses on both building bridges towards greater cultural awareness while also facilitating connections between professionals providing palliative care in San Diego, South Orange and southwestern Riverside County, and the diverse cultural groups that form these communities. 

In times of crisis or illness, there is much comfort to be derived from being cared for by those who understand our traditions and values.   Palliative care is care focused on relief of suffering and optimizing quality of life.  To accomplish palliative care for everyone in our community, we need to be sensitive to our own cultural biases and behavior and learn about the impact of culture and ethnicity, and how attitudes and experiences of illness, end of life and care influence how caring is both given and received. 

In partnership with the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California and the CSUSM Department of Anthropology, the CSU Institute for Palliative Care has created a program that combines the opportunity for hospice and palliative care staff and leadership to enhance their cultural sensitivity, open the doors of dialogue with those who represent our communities diverse traditions, and at the same time, contribute to shaping a curriculum that will influence cultural awareness in health care in the future.