September | CE WEBINAR
Date: Wednesday, 9/17/2025
Event Time: 10:00 AM PT / 11:00 AM MT / 12:00 PM CT / 1:00 PM ET
In the evolving landscape of hospice and palliative care, social workers are called to lead, not just through titles, but through integrity, clarity, and connection to purpose. This session shares the story of a social work leadership role built through administrative collaboration, while also offering a broader lens on what it means to lead from where you are. We’ll explore how staying connected to what drives us allows each social worker to identify their own most authentic and sustainable forms of advocacy. Whether at the bedside, in team meetings, or navigating institutional systems, social workers can cultivate influence by honoring the advocacy work they are uniquely positioned to do.
Learning Objectives:
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Participants will takeaway strategies for building trust at various levels of the hospital.
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Participants will understand micro, mezzo, and macro forms of advocacy, recognizing that effective empowerment can take many forms.
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Participants will understand the importance and power of the existence of goal and value alignment.
About the Speakers:
Sandy Chan, LCSW, APHSW-C has been working in hospice and palliative care for over 20 years. She started her career as an in-home hospice social worker at Pathways Home Health and Hospice in Oakland, CA, and then was recruited to help start the Palliative Care inpatient service at Stanford Healthcare in 2007 in partnership with an advance practice nurse and medical director. After five years, she took a position as the Assistant Director of Social Work at UCSF Medical Center and was supervising the entire social work department. She was recruited back to help to manage and develop the Outpatient Palliative Care Clinic program at Stanford. She is now the Director of Palliative Care and Geriatrics and has been in that role for 6 years. Sandy is passionate about social work practice and leadership in general and the specialty of palliative care specifically and promoting its importance in healthcare delivery.
Mike Polisso, LCSW, APHSW-C has been working with patients with serious illness for the last 6 years. He started his medical social work career at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital on the Oncology and Neuro Oncology services where he developed a passion for supporting patients and their loved ones at the end of life. He moved over the Palliative Care team at Stanford in 2022 as a clinician and has since moved into a Lead role with the Palliative Care Team. Mike is passionate about elevating the Palliative Care Social Work Specialty and the clinical role of all social workers in the hospital setting.
October | CE WEBINAR
Date & Time: October 21, 2025, at 10am-11am PT/1pm-2pm ET
Presented by: Dr. Solimar Santiago-Warner, DSW, LCSW, PMH-C | Solmaterna Psychotherapy & Consulting and NYU- Zelda Foster Studies in Palliative Care and End of Life Care
This workshop explores how postpartum bodies become living archives of grief following stillbirth or late miscarriage within the context of perinatal palliative care. Drawing from phenomenology, affect theory, and clinical social work, the session examines the embodied experience of bereaved parents navigating postpartum after fetal loss. Participants will critically examine the limitations of traditional postpartum
care models and learn how to integrate grief-informed, trauma-responsive practices rooted in perinatal palliative principles, including anticipatory grief, memory-making, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The workshop advocates for a reimagined approach to postpartum care that honors the body as both a site of loss and a source of resilience.
Learning Objectives:
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Analyze how postpartum bodies function as embodied sites of grief following stillbirth or late miscarriage through phenomenological and affective lenses.
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Evaluate the limitations of traditional postpartum care models and identify opportunities for integrating grief-informed, trauma-responsive practices.
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Apply perinatal palliative care principles such as anticipatory grief support, memory-making, and interdisciplinary collaboration to enhance support for bereaved parents in the postpartum period.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Solimar Santiago-Warner, DSW, LCSW, PMH-C, is a perinatal mental health therapist, grief educator, and founder of Solmaterna Psychotherapy & Consulting. She specializes in supporting BIPOC birthing people through reproductive trauma, perinatal loss, and identity transitions, offering trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and justice-centered care grounded in her clinical experience in NICU, PICU, and labor and delivery palliative care settings. Dr. Santiago-Warner serves as adjunct faculty at NYU and Manhattan University and teaches with the Zelda Foster Studies in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. She mentors social workers, advises doctoral students, and consults with organizations. Her scholarship focuses on perinatal palliative care, embodied grief, reproductive justice, and the neurobiology of trauma. Her published work includes Social Work Practice in Perinatal Palliative Care and The Integration of the Resolved Through Sharing Model with Latinx Cultural Values. Dr. Santiago- Warner previously served on the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care’s inaugural Pediatric Palliative Care Task Force, where she co-led the needs assessment group.
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November | CE WEBINAR
Date & Time: Thursday, November 20th, 2025, at 11am-12pm PT/2-3pm ET
Presented by: Abigail E. Gellene-Beaudoin, LCSW, APHSW-C, RPT-S™, PMH-C
In this presentation, participants will understand the psychological and emotional impact of a loved one’s life-threatening illness on children, learn communication techniques tailored to the unique needs of families facing end-of-life situations, and develop skills to assist caregivers in initiating and facilitating conversations with their children about illness, treatment, and prognosis.
Learning Objectives:
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Identify at least 2 common symptoms of anticipatory grief in children
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Describe children's understanding of death by developmental age
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Identify at least 3 needs children have when given information about a terminal illness
About the Speaker:
Abigail Gellene-Beaudoin is a licensed psychotherapist specializing in supporting children, teens, and adults through life's most challenging transitions. With over a decade of experience in pediatric and perinatal palliative care and hospice, she brings a compassionate, developmentally attuned approach to helping individuals and families navigate their grief, loss, and complex medical journeys. Abbey has also authored two books to help children understand and cope with anticipatory grief and medically complex situations. She lives in coastal Virginia with her family and currently works in a private therapy practice.
December | CE WEBINAR
December CE:
Honoring the Human-Animal Bond in Grief and Hospice Care
Date & Time: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025, at 10-11am PT/1-2pm ET
Presented by: Lisa Wiborg, LISW-S, C-AAIS, Veterinary Social Worker | Co-Owner of Healing Paws, LLC
Pets hold a profound place in people’s lives, offering comfort, companionship, and unconditional love. Their loss—whether through death, disappearance, or end-of-life decisions—can trigger grief as deep and complex as that experienced with human loss. This presentation explores the history and depth of the human-animal bond, grief and bereavement theories, and the concept of disenfranchised grief. It also highlights how hospice and palliative care social workers can incorporate the human-animal bond in supporting patients and families. Through case examples, ethical considerations, and practical strategies, participants will learn to integrate these approaches into practice while honoring the relationships between people and animals.
Learning Objectives:
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Explain the human-animal bond and its influence on grief and bereavement experiences.
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Describe the concept of disenfranchised grief as it relates to pet loss.
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Integrate human-animal bond principles into grief and bereavement interventions.
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Apply ethical, cultural, and risk management considerations when supporting clients through grief and loss.
About the Speaker:
Lisa Wiborg is a Veterinary Social Worker and licensed independent social worker in Cleveland, Ohio. With over 18 years of experience in medical social work, hospice care, and dementia support, she integrates the human-animal bond to bring comfort during life’s most difficult moments. Lisa earned her MSW from The Ohio State University and completed the post-graduate Veterinary Social Work certificate at the University of Tennessee, where she now coordinates projects for the Center for Veterinary Social Work. She is an adjunct professor and faculty liaison at Cleveland State University, co-founder of Healing Paws LLC, and Co-Director of Education for the International Association of Veterinary Social Work. A graduate of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Fellowship, her research focuses on reducing stress in veterinary medicine through Acceptance and Commitment Training. Inspired by her “souldog” Scrabble, Lisa enjoys traveling with her husband and spending time with her dogs, Lincoln and tri-paw Pretzel.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Continuing Education Information
Social Work Hospice + Palliative Care Network (SWHPN), #1716, is approved as a provider for social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) www.aswb.org, through the Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Social Work Hospice + Palliative Care Network aka SWHPN maintains responsibility for the program. ASWB Approval Period: 7/18/2023 – 7/18/2026.
Social workers should contact their regulatory board to determine course approval for continuing education credits.