top of page

Community Education

Our Community Education programs facilitate constructive conversations in the community about serious illness, caregiving challenges, end-of-life and grief. 

CaringMatters strives to develop community knowledge and skills around serious illness, caregiving challenges, end-of-life and grief-related topics that can be applied to daily life. Our meaningful educational events and discussions help build a caring and compassionate community.

For information on Community Education, please contact

Leigh Bluestein, leighb@caringmatters.org or 301-990-7927

Thank you to our Community Education funding partner

aarp_MD Red Logo.png

Upcoming Webinar

Live Well To Die Well:
An Interactive Talk with Author and Educator Chris Palmer
Thursday, June 6, 2024, 10:00 am – 11:00 am

To live well is to get ready to die well. Our daily lives create the person we will be when we die and, thus, the kind of death we will experience. This educational talk will explore goals, strategies, and tactics we can adopt to live meaningful, fulfilled, and productive lives.

Chris will lead participants in a reflection of our own lives:

  • contemplating what matters deeply to us

  • considering how we find purpose and meaning

  • devising a personal mission statement

  • examining how to take better care of ourselves

  • exploring how all of these practices can impact on the quality of our death

Chris+headshot+2+2019.jpg

​Chris Palmer is an author, speaker, wildlife filmmaker, conservationist, educator, professor, and grandfather. He dedicated his professional career to conservation but now devotes his life to death and dying issues. His 10thbook, Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life, will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2024. He is a trained hospice volunteer and founded and runs an aging, death, and dying group for the Bethesda Metro Area Village. He serves on the Board of Montgomery Hospice & Prince George’s Hospice, is vice president of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maryland & Environs and serves on the Advisory Council for the Maryland Office of Cemetery Oversight. He is on the Bethesda Metro Area Environs and is a former Board member of the Green Burial Association of Maryland.

Past Community Education Presentations Include:

​

  • Webinar: Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Extending Compassion and Whole Person Healing

  • Webinar: Cognitive Change: Understanding, Connecting, and Creating Moments of Joy 

  • Webinar - Prepare for the Inevitable: Financial Planning to Prepare for the Death of a Family Member

  • Webinar - Seniors and Social Isolation

  • Webinar - Suffocated Grief and Black Youth Coping with Loss

  • Webinar - How to Support Grieving People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

  • Webinar - Caregiver Stress in Asian American Communities

  • Webinar - Providing Inclusive and Affirming Care for the LGBTQ+ Community

  • Webinar - Caring for the Caregiver

  • Webinar - The End-of-Life Doulas: A Collaborative Approach to End-of-Life Care

  • Webinar - Grief Support for the Black Community: Understanding the Culture of Trauma and Developing an Empathy-Driven Mindset

  • Webinar: Grief: Support for Yourself and Those You Care About

  • Webinar - Grief in the Workplace: Guidance for Employees and Employers

  • Webinar - ​Voice Your Choice: Preparing for Health Care Emergencies

  • Webinar - Speaking Grief Film Discussion

  • Webinar - LGBTQ+ Seriously Ill Seniors: Opportunities for Better Care

  • Webinar - Grief and Self-Care in the Time of COVID-19

  • Webinar - Supporting Grieving Students After a Death: How We Can Help Them Build Resilience in a Time of Physical Distancing

  • Navigating Transitions for Your Loved One's Care

  • Nine To Ninety Film Screening & Discussion

  • Caregivers' Toolkit: Community Resources for Patients & Families Facing Serious Illness

  • Voices of Grief Film Screening & Discussion

  • Managing Grief in the Age of 24-Hour News & Social Media

bottom of page