One of the highlights of our upcoming ADEC’s 50th Anniversary Conference will be a powerful interactive performance by professional actors of Round House Theatre, Bethesda. This performance, titled “STAGING LOSS:  TALKING ABOUT WHAT WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT,” is based on a recent book by Loscalzo, Forstein, and Klein: Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Health Care Professionals (Oxford University Press, 2023). Music for the performance will be provided by Gita Ladd, Principal Cellist of the Baltimore Opera Company. 

Commentary following the performance will be provided by J. William Worden, PhD, ABPP, and Dr. Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv, Senior Vice President for Grief Programs, Hospice Foundation of America

Join us on Friday, March 6th at 3:30pm for what is sure to be a most memorable and meaningful experience! 

This signature event is sponsored by J. William Worden, PhD, ABPP

“Staging Loss: Talking About What We Do Not Talk About” 

The health of our healthcare system depends on the well-being of those who serve within it. At a time of widespread burnout, moral injury, and compassion fatigue, addressing the emotional toll of caregiving is no longer optional-it is essential.

Staging Loss: Talking About What We Do Not Talk About is an interactive, creative theatrical experience that invites open, courageous dialogue around these often-silenced experiences.  Rooted in the belief that healthcare must honor the dignity, values, and humanity of all people—patients and clinicians alike—this session offers a space for reflection, connection, and healing.  Taken verbatim from Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Healthcare Professionals (Oxford University Press, 2023), professional actors dramatize raw and unflinching essays of personal loss, many written by a diverse group of internationally recognized healthcare professionals, affiliated or formerly affiliated with the world’s top healthcare institutions, including City of Hope, Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Memorial Sloan Kettering, the National Cancer Institute, St. Jude’s, Stanford and Yale. 

Through storytelling and shared insight, participants explore how tending to our own grief can strengthen our capacity to care for others, and how humanistic care begins with empathy—for ourselves and each other.  Join us as we make space for what is difficult—and discover what becomes possible when we do. 

The ADEC community is uniquely positioned to lead this cultural shift—modeling courageous communication and compassionate care for ourselves and one another.

The performance will be livestreamed and made available as a recording to all registered attendees following the conference.

This performance will be followed by our annual “Service of Remembrance,” which will create a space to honor those we have lost, both personally and as colleagues in our field, after a brief intermission.