2025 Midwest Regional Conference on Palliative and End of Life Care
Date & Time
October 19 - October 21
Event Location
Event Details
October 19-21, 2025 Columbia Missouri
Wyndham Executive Center
To book your sleeping room for the conference click here!
Exhibit Information
Sponsorship Opportunities
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS FOR 2025 MIDWEST REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON PALLIATIVE & END OF LIFE CARE
The unique impact of moral distress and moral injury in healthcare workers
Tyler D. Staples PsyD
University of Kansas Medical Center
Post-Doctoral Fellow in Clinical Psychology
Moral injury refers to the psychological and spiritual distress that occurs when a person engages in, witnesses, or is unable to prevent actions that violate their deeply held moral beliefs and values. Though not formally recognized as a psychological disorder, it has long been indicated in the research as a significant contributor to negative mental health outcomes, especially in professional caregivers. In this presentation, we will learn what the research says about the sources of moral injury for healthcare personnel along with its impact on their physical and mental health. We will then discuss steps that professional caregivers can take to mitigate the negative impact of moral injury in order to help them care more effectively for their patients—and for themselves.
10/26/15
Edgar A Barens PRISON TERMINAL
Title Documentary Specialist
Keynote Speaker: Edgar Barnes -Edgar Barens is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose work explores the human stories within the American criminal justice system, revealing the personal toll of its systemic challenges. His Academy Award-nominated Prison Terminal (2014) raised awareness of the need for humane end-of-life care in prisons, screening widely in correctional facilities, academic institutions, conferences, and community hospice centers. The film highlights Iowa State Penitentiary’s pioneering peer-caregiver hospice program, a model Barens hopes will inspire other correctional facilities to provide dignified care for incarcerated individuals facing death. He now works with the Humane Prison Hospice Project, a California-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding compassionate end-of-life care in prisons by transforming how incarcerated people die through education, advocacy, and training to support their peers as caregivers and grief companions.
