CHCD has a leadership role with the California Coalition for Compassionate Care (CCCC), a statewide partnership of regional and statewide organizations dedicated to the advancement of palliative medicine and end-of-life care in California. Associate Director Kathy Glasmire currently serves on the CCCC Advisory Board.

CHCD was instrumental in forming CCCC in 1998. CHCD Executive Director Marge Ginsburg served as co-chair of the Coalition from its inception until 2006, and Kathy Glasmire led the Public Engagement Initiative for 7 years.

POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment)

POLST documents a seriously ill patient's treatment decisions in medical orders. The California Coalition for Compassionate Care is the lead POLST organization in California. With funding support from the California HealthCare Foundation, CCCC is employing both statewide and local strategies to spread the use of POLST.

To assist CCCC with its local strategy CHCD produced a white paper summarizing the first year's work of and lessons learned from eight community POLST coalitions. The paper was presented at CCCC's annual conference in March.

In August, CHCD began a two-year project to help ensure that POLST becomes recognized and commonly used throughout the region.