Events
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Welcome to Education Day 2026 | May 8th
Tigh-Na-Mara Resort, Parksville, BC
Join community hospice and palliative care leaders, staff, volunteers, and students as we come together to learn, connect, and celebrate the community-based hospice sector across Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
This diverse program offers fresh ideas and practical insights to help you build skills and spark creativity in your work.
$129 includes a full-day pass and buffet lunch. Register today at EducationDay2026.Eventbrite.ca.
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We gratefully acknowledge our sponsors for their generous support. Thank you for helping make this day possible.
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8:30–9:30 a.m. Event Registration and Check-in
9:30–10 a.m. Event Welcome, Land Acknowledgement and Opening Remarks
10–11 a.m. Keynote
Dr. G. Michael Downing, MD
BC Cancer Agency, Pain and Symptom Clinic
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Celebrating 40 years of Community Hospice Care in BC
11:15–12:30 p.m. Sessions
Trisha Lees, MBA and
Mackenzie Kuecks-Winger, BA (Econ)
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Leveraging Communications and Data to Achieve Maximum Impact
This session explores the power of combining marketing and communications efforts with data to create more meaningful, impactful messaging in the nonprofit sector.
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By integrating data-driven insights with storytelling and strategic outreach, organizations can better understand their audiences, tailor their messages, and amplify their mission.
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Attendees will learn how to leverage data to inform decisions, strengthen engagement, reporting, and drive measurable outcomes while maintaining authenticity and purpose.
Aly Bird, MScPI, MACP
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When Loss Comes Without Warning: Supporting Grief After Sudden Death
When death is unexpected, unanticipated, or very fast, grief often carries layers of shock, disorientation, and unanswered questions that can complicate the mourning process.
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This session explores the unique impact of sudden bereavement and how it can differ from more anticipated loss. Participants will be introduced to practical, trauma-informed therapeutic tools and modalities to support individuals navigating this kind of grief. There will be a focus on how to gently meet clients in the early disorientation of loss, as well as how to support ongoing integration over time.
In this session there will be plenty of room for discussion, reflection, and shared learning, with the goal of helping attendees feel more confident and equipped to walk alongside those grieving the unexpected.
Lynne MacFadgen, MHsc, CASC and
Oceanna Hall, B.Sc., M.Ed, RCCH
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Dying as a Sacred, Spiritual Practice
This interactive 75-minute workshop is for end-of-life care providers and volunteers who are interested in exploring a variety of topics that often surface during end-of-life support. Using a conversational presentation style, participants will be invited to consider dying as an existential, sacred, spiritual practice.
What does it mean to be a death companion? How can we support end-of-life grieving, shifting the focus from the obvious external loss to the internal landscape? How can we help family and friends navigate some of the common challenges experienced after a loved one has chosen a medically assisted death (MAiD)? Why is death so fear-based and not a normal, interconnected part of the life process?
All topics are sacred, nothing is taboo – come and engage your body, mind, and spirit!
1:30–2:45 p.m. Sessions
Kim Dunlap, Facilitator
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Foundations of Group Facilitation
This 75 minute session is designed for hospice facilitators and committed volunteers who are beginning to design and lead group programs. It focuses on building confidence and practical skills needed to create supportive, well-structured group experiences.
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Participants will learn the fundamentals of program design, including how to set simple, clear learning objectives, plan engaging activities, and respond to the emotional and relational dynamics that arise in group settings. The session will introduce core facilitation skills such as active listening, compassionate communication, and creating a safe, inclusive environment where participants feel heard and respected.
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By the end of the session, participants will feel more prepared to design and facilitate meaningful group programs that promote connection, and comfort in community hospice learning settings.
Cilla Holmes, RTC, EXA, C-NBT-1 and Tensley Koontz, Clinical Counsellor
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​​Exploring Nature Based Interventions in Hospice to Support Youth, Adults and Families in Grief, Bereavement, Death and Dying
This 90-minute outdoor workshop explores a few simple ways we can connect with nature to support those moving through the profound transitions of bereavement, death, and dying. Nature has unique ways of reminding us that everything moves in cycles. Light shifts, trees, water, and wild species transform through changing seasons. For someone grieving, a moment of birdsong, breeze moving, even a memory of sunlight or rainfall can become an anchor to support us even in times of sorrow. Research shows that even a short experience of feeling connected to nature can support the wellbeing of people experiencing loss and complicated grief.
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Nature-based therapy can offer simple ways to integrate moments of awareness, gentle connection, and even family play into support contexts. In this short, experiential workshop, we will explore possibilities that Nature-based therapy can hold for yourself and the people you support. We will play, practice, and reflect on our capacity to hold and transform emotional pain within this container of connection to self, community, and Earth.
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Whether you are currently offering support indoors or out, participants will gain experience practicing interventions that they can apply right away in a variety of support contexts.
Dr. Christine Jones, MD Family Medicine, Palliative Care, Medical Director- Victoria Hopsice
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​​Ethical Reflection and Compassionate Conversation in Hospice Care
Ever leave a hospice visit unsure what was right, what to say, or what you’re carrying home? Sometimes moments linger after a visit; a conversation that felt unfinished, uncertainty about how to respond, or a quite sense of responsibility that does not easily settle. These experiences are common, and they matter.
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Cards for Humanity is a tool by which we can enter into conversation together, in safe and brave spaces, to engage with uncertainty, values, and relationships—without requiring ethical expertise or right answers.
In this interactive workshop, participants will “play with principles” utilizing the Cards for Humanity game to work through a hospice-care–focused scenario that reflects everyday realities of end-of-life care. Together, participants will explore questions of role, responsibility, boundaries, and response through structured yet open conversation.
Rather than aiming for resolution, the session emphasizes shared language, reflection, and compassionate dialogue. Participants are invited to notice how values, relationships, and context shape ethical experiences—and how talking together can ease isolation, strengthen confidence, and support compassionate presence in this deeply human work.
2:45–4 p.m. Sessions
Adrienne Lawlor, OT and Expressive Arts Facilitator
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​​​Held Hearts, Open Spaces: Exploring Expressive Arts with Grieving Youth and Families, While Sustaining Ourselves
​This session offers an introduction to accessible expressive arts activities with grieving youth and families. Beginning with a brief overview of relevant research, participants will engage in a hands-on adaptable activity and learn how to create a portable “art cart” with ready available materials. We will also touch on expressive art activities for self-care, supporting those who are accompanying grieving youth and their families as a valuable parallel process.
Participants will leave with an understanding of expressive arts, practical activity ideas and resources for further learning.
Krista Helman MSW, RCSW, EMDRCT
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After-death Communication in Grief Care: Meaning Making Through a Documented Human Experience
After-death communication (ADC) is a documented human experience reported across the human lifespan, cultures, stages of health, and states of consciousness.
These experiences may include sensing a presence, vivid dreams, inner messages, or symbolic encounters. At end of life, similar phenomena are often referred to as deathbed visions or end of life experiences, where individuals nearing death report seeing or sensing deceased loved ones. Many individuals hesitate to share these experiences due to fear of being dismissed, misunderstood, or pathologized. While science has not fully explained these experiences, research suggests they are common and can be supportive in both dying and grief processes.
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For those supporting individuals and families through loss, the question is not whether these experiences are real, but how we respond to them. When these moments are dismissed or pathologized, opportunities for understanding and meaning can be missed.
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When they are met with openness, respect, and informed understanding, they can support meaning making, ongoing bonds, and a sense of comfort as people move through grief.
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This 75-minute presentation offers a practical, evidence-informed approach for volunteers, hospice staff, medical professionals, and clinicians. Participants will learn how grief involves the brain’s natural reorientation to loss across time, space, and connection, and why pain, while not constant, is necessary to activate this adaptive process. The session will focus on how to recognize after-death communication when it occurs, how to
differentiate it from experiences that may require further assessment or support, and how to thoughtfully use these moments as a supportive tool when working with those who are dying or grieving.
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Participants will leave with a clear understanding of after-death communication and practical ways to support meaning making, which can facilitate adaptive grieving, reduce distress, and foster resilience and a renewed sense of connection.
Aly Bird MScPI, MACP, EMDR
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Caring Without Collapsing: Boundaries and Self-Regulation in Hospice Work
Working in the field of death and dying is deeply meaningful but it can also be emotionally demanding. Supporting families at the end of life and through the grief that follows requires not only skill, but ongoing attention to your own internal world.
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This session invites participants to reflect on how they care for themselves while doing this work. Together, we will explore practical ways to make space for your own thoughts and feelings, how to develop sustainable boundaries and we’ll explore the role of ritual in processing the grief that can come with this work.
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Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how to support themselves alongside the families they serve, and with practical tools to help sustain them in this important work.