SUNY Upstate symposium to examine ethical and other issues related to family caregiving Nov. 2

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - To what extent should society support family caregivers of the ill, frail or disabled? How should health professionals address the concerns and interests of family caregivers? These questions and other ethical issues surrounding family caregiving will be explored at SUNY Upstate Medical University's 13th Annual President's Ethics Symposium, "Family Caregiving: Are We Asking Too Much?" Nov. 2, from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Medical Alumni Auditorium in Weiskotten Hall, 766 Irving Ave., Syracuse. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Carol Levine, director of the Families and Health Care Project for the United Hospital Fund, will present the keynote address. Levine has written extensively on issues related to family caregiving "When the caregiver needs care" in the American Journal of Public Health (2002) and "The loneliness of the long-term caregiver" in the New England Journal of Medicine in which she details her role as a caregiver to her husband.

The symposium also features interactive discussions of ways that caregivers can balance their needs against the needs of the person they are caring for. Also covered will be the ethics of family caregiving and family caregiving health policy. Symposium participants include James Dwyer, Ph.D., of SUNY Upstate's Center for Bioethics and Humanities, and Thomas Dennison, Ph.D., of Syracuse University's Maxwell School.

The symposium is sponsored by SUNY Upstate's President's office and the Center for Bioethics and Humanities.

For more information, call 315-464-8668.