ABOUT THE SIG
History
We filed an application for a new special interest group (SIG) within the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) in 2018. We were approved as a SIG in-formation and held our first annual meeting in March 2019.
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Mission
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The mission of the Palliative Care SIG will be to understand the psychosocial, spiritual, and symptom management needs of patients with serious, life limiting illness and their family members, and on interventions to meet these needs and enhance patient and family quality of life. This will be accomplished through: 1) fostering interdisciplinary communication among researchers and clinicians working with palliative care populations; 2) promoting high-quality, collaborative palliative care research; 3) enhancing the professional development of researchers and clinicians through education and mentoring; 4) working with other professional organizations involved in palliative care research; and, 5) working with predoctoral internship and other training programs that include a focus in palliative care. The SIG’s mission and goals align with those of SBM in that they involve a multidisciplinary approach to research, education, and clinical care, and the application of behavior change principles to improve the well-being of individuals and families coping with serious illness.
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Activities
The Palliative Care SIG engages members in a number of activities including: (a) creating a member listserv; (b) writing and distributing a quarterly newsletter; (c) establishing a tier of awards for students (e.g., outstanding student abstracts) through senior investigators (e.g., outstanding paper); (d) contributing articles to Outlook and hosting a virtual journal club meeting twice a year; (e) developing programming for the Annual Meeting, including pre-conference workshops, symposia, and panels; (f) conducting business meetings at the Annual Meeting; (g) nominating SIG members as expert consultants and mentors; and (g) collaborating on writing articles for submission for review to the Annals of Behavioral Medicine and Translational Behavioral Medicine.
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