Knowledgeable Aging

Resources for the Aging Population

Becoming the Peacemaker: A Mediator’s Strategies for Conflict Resolution in Clinical Settings

Learning Objectives in Mediation Webinar:

  1. You’ll learn ways to turn positions into interests to create satisfactory options for agreement between the parties.
  2. You will learn tips on how to become a better and more effective listener.
  3. You will learn practical ways to become a problem-solver rather than just a participant in client and family meetings.


Learn to become a peacemaker. Calling all patient advocates, nurses, social workers, and anyone interested in learning how to be a peacemaker and problem-solver among family members, clients, patients, and medical professionals.  This webinar will help participants develop some necessary skills to use in tight situations.  The key to resolving any dispute is active listening, allowing all the participants to have a voice, and finding common ground among the parties to uncover some options for a peaceful resolution.  While similar to mediation, conciliation is less formal, intending to help the parties reach a consensus while restoring their relationship, an important goal for disputing families. There are tips on:

  • becoming a more effective listener
  • dealing with anticipatory grief, and
  • separating the people from the problem

Listen to the Podcast

  • 2:26 – What is mediation and conciliation
  • 8:27 – Peacemaker approach
  • 10:08 – Steps in family clinical meeting
  • 13:25 – Positions vs interests
  • 15:28 – Listening to understand
  • 16:35 – Dealing with power imbalances in the room
  • 19:14 – Failure to communicate
  • 22:30 – Anticipatory grief
  • 25:00 – Shut up and just listen
  • 25:58 – 6 ways to become a better listener
  • 27:34 – Questions
Althea Halchuck

For 20 years, I have been advocating for the vulnerable and dying.  For ten years, I trained and mediated elder disputes at the LA County Department of Consumer Affairs.  I helped elders with family issues, including financial abuse and end-of-life care.   In 2012, I earned an Executive Juris Doctor (EJD) from Concord Law School, a division of Purdue Global, majoring in Health Law.  My internship was in Pediatric Hospice, where I spent a year attending Interdisciplinary Team Meetings and writing about my experiences.

For many years, I have been a hospice volunteer sitting at the bedside of many dying patients.  In addition to supporting their families, I help tie up their final loose ends so they can pass in peace.  I have been a Thanatologist since 2015. I am certified as an expert in caring for the dying and bereaved and teaching others about the dying process.  I have clinical bioethics training and sat on two hospital bioethics committees.

In 2020, I became a Board-Certified Patient Advocate (BCPA) and started Ending Well Patient Advocacy, LLC.  I weaved my past experiences into a business that specializes in giving people a voice in planning the last chapter of their life.  I earned Facilitator certificates through Respecting Choices® and now offer community classes and presentations on advance care planning and surrogacy.

In January 2021, I became the Surrogate Consultant for the Final Exit Network (FEN).  My role is to help FEN members and their partners who act as surrogates or healthcare proxies enforce and honor the patient’s Advance Directives.

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