Archstone Foundation Awards $487,598 to Support End-of-Life Initiative

The Board of Directors of the Archstone Foundation, a private foundation whose mission is to prepare for an aging society, awarded $487,598 to the City of Hope to support a National Summit to improve the quality of spiritual care at the end of life. The grant was approved during the Board’s quarterly meeting in September 2008 and is a component of the Foundation’s End-of-Life Initiative.

As one approaches the end of life, addressing the spiritual needs of the individual are key to providing quality palliative care. “Improving how spiritual care is provided at the end of life will enable individuals to better understand and interpret what it means to be human, to appreciate the significance of one’s life, and bring closure.” said Joseph F. Prevratil, President and CEO of the Archstone Foundation. The goal of the National Summit is to build consensus around practical recommendations that will lead to improved spiritual practices while providing palliative care in hospitals and nursing homes.

Building upon efforts conducted by the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care and the National Quality Forum, the City of Hope (COH) is partnering with the George Washington University’s Institute for Spiritual Health (GWISH) to implement the summit. Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, FAAN, a research scientist at COH located in Duarte, California, and co-director of the project said, “This effort serves as an important next step in advancing the integration of spiritual care guidelines by identifying practical methods for hospitals and long-term care settings to adopt and incorporate these methods into the palliative care service.” Christina Puchalski, MD, MS, FACP, Director of GWISH, an Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University School of Medicine, and co-director of the project added, “The resulting summit proceedings document will provide a seminal foundation on the role of spirituality in improving palliative care practice, policies, and informing future research.”

Under the leadership of Joseph F. Prevratil, J.D., President and CEO, the Archstone Foundation has awarded more than $71 million in grants since it was established in 1986. The Foundation’s funding priorities include end-of-life issues, elder abuse and neglect, fall prevention, and responsive grantmaking to address emerging issues within the aging population.