Two-thirds of Californians and 22 of California’s counties have no access to community-based palliative care.
So, who helps people with serious illness who are experiencing difficult symptoms like nausea, pain, constipation, breathlessness, anxiety, or depression? Who helps them make decisions about advance care planning, goal-setting, or end-of-life issues? Often it’s the healthcare practitioners at primary care clinics—many of whom work in remote areas with very little access to training and peer support.
These heroes are on the front lines, and it’s our nonprofit educational arm, ResolutionCare Fund, that we use to support and train them in palliative care skills and competencies.
Hollywood Squares: Virtual Training via Telehealth

Technology Bridges Rural Isolation
To connect with these practitioners, we used the tele-mentoring model developed by the University of New Mexico’s Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes). The ECHO model uses videoconferencing as the tool that allows expert teams to conduct virtual clinics with community providers. In this way, primary care doctors, nurses, medical assistants, and other providers learn to provide excellent specialty care to patients in their own practices.
People-to-People Benefits
The benefits of this program, “Training Primary Palliative Care Champions,” as reported by the healthcare providers themselves, included:
• Improved ability to manage patients’ physical and mental symptoms
• Increased comfort and confidence in leading advance care planning and goal-setting conversations—as well as addressing end-of-life issues with patients and their families
• Reduced feelings of isolation, and a new feeling of support for a very difficult area of their work
The regular opportunity to check in with each other, seek advice and support, and share struggles was a significant benefit for all.
Heroes’ Roll Call
The following community clinics took part in the program:
• Redwoods Rural Health Center (Redway),
• Heart of the Redwoods Hospice (Garberville)
• K’ima:w Medical Center (Hoopa)
• Six Rivers Medical Center (Willow Creek)
• Ferndale Community Health Center
• Arcata Community Life Medical Center
• United Indian Health Services (Arcata)
• Redwood Coast Medical Services (Gualala and Pt. Arena)
The program was generously funded by these groups dedicated to improving the lives of people in our community:
· Partnership Health Plan
· California Health Care Foundation
· North Coast Grant Makers
· Union Labor Health Foundation
· Bertha Russ Lytel Foundation
· St. Joseph Health – Humboldt County
· Individual Donors
Stay tuned: we’ll have more to report in the coming months, as we expand the reach of our educational programs.
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