Service

We facilitate the application of values.
Often, the Center is asked to assist in meeting specific community needs in which values make a difference. We provide educational and organizational guidance in the application of ethics and human values. These services can be targeted to a specific task or a particular industry application. We work with groups, businesses, and institutions to design the solution that best accomplishes their organizational goals.

We meet needs and provide services.
With a generous gift from the Arthur and Helen Baer Foundation, the Center helped an important youth intervention project to move forward. This highly successful project focused on reducing violence and improving children’s health in University City East by providing summer camp experiences for at–risk elementary and secondary students. The program was organized by Sheila Bader, director of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Children and Youth at the School of Law, and involved an inter-disciplinary team of faculty and graduate students from the Schools of Law, Medicine, and Social Work.

At the request of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the Center organized a program to increase the awareness of lawyers, certified public accountants, and enrolled agents regarding ethical issues in tax preparation. This program was led by law professor Peter Wiedenbeck and business faculty member Nancy Pechloff, and included a panel of nationally recognized experts:

James G. Castellano, chairman, Rubin, Brown, Gornstein and Company, LLP
Tom Herman, senior special writer, Wall Street Journal
Cono Namorato, director, Office of Professional Responsibility, United States Internal Revenue Service
Christopher S. Rizek, Caplin and Drysdale, Washington, D.C.
Bernard Wolfman, Fessenden Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

A DVD of the program was distributed to IRS state field offices bringing the Center and its work to the attention of a national audience of business, law and government professionals.

“The ‘Ethics Program for Tax Practitioners’ brought to the Washington University campus leading academics and influential tax practitioners who are involved in tax law professional responsibility and compliance issues. It was a particularly timely presentation, for two reasons. First, the IRS was in the midst of overhauling its longstanding rules of practice (known as Circular 230) and reinvigorating and reorienting its practitioner oversight and enforcement operations. Second, Congress had just enacted legislation that tightened tax shelter disclosure rules and increased tax penalties, including penalties on professionals involved in abusive transactions. During the late 1990s some elite law and large accounting firms were deeply involved in the design and promotion of abusive corporate tax shelter transactions that cost the Treasury billions in lost revenue. That notorious conduct put pressure on conscientious practitioners, reinforced a business culture of gaming the tax system, and eroded public respect for the income tax system. Despite the importance of the issues to both public policy and day-to-day tax practice, most of the leading experts are in Washington, D.C. or elsewhere on the East Coast. Bringing them to Washington University to debate the issues increases awareness and broadens the dialogue.”
Peter J. Wiedenbeck, Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor of Law of Property, School of Law

Palliative Care Service Program

The Center brought together faculty and students from the schools of Medicine, Law, Business, and Social Work to launch a Palliative Care Program (PCP) is designed to serve patients at Barnes–Jewish Hospital who have potentially life–limiting illnesses.

The PCP addresses their needs as well as those of their physicians, nurses, and family members as they struggle with complex, end–of–life decisions. The goal of the PCP is to provide the most comprehensive, compassionate and effective medical care to those who are in the greatest need. The Center continues to help lead and expand the three functional areas of the PCP: Clinical Service, Education, and Research.

Clinical Service

A team of hospital physicians and other health professionals—nurses, social workers, chaplains, counselors, nutritionists, pharmacists, therapists and rehabilitation specialists—work with patients to alleviate pain and improve symptom management. This interdisciplinary palliative care team works with physicians and family members to coordinate overall patient care. The PCP expands the traditional model of medical treatment by helping to enhance the patient’s quality of life and dealing with the psychological, spiritual and practical burdens of disease.

Education

Physicians, nurses, patients, family members and the community must become better informed about the benefits and practices of palliative medicine. Only then will the PCP be successful in reaching patients who need help at all stages of illness. The PCP Education Program is designed to help everyone become aware of this important new service.

Research

The PCP Research Initiative supports basic research in palliative medicine and health care. Faculty, students and health professionals from various areas are developing research protocols that will document the impact of palliative medicine on the quality of patient care.

“Palliative care is an essential part of providing high–quality care to many patients, especially those with life–threatening diseases. Nationally, there has been a trend to implement this kind of pro-gram for patients facing end–of–life decisions, and it has become clear that helping them and their families make such decisions in line with their values results in improved quality of life for them. We at Barnes–Jewish Hospital and Washington University need to be involved in this, and the Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values needs to play a role as a thought leader in this area.”
Michael Naughton, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, School of Medicine

“The introduction of the Palliative Care Program has expanded the range of interventions available for our physicians and staff to integrate into their care of patients and families. PCP effectively moves both the School of Medicine and Barnes–Jewish Hospital beyond the narrower focus of ‘curative’ health care and into the broader arena of ‘healing’ health care. The Center was a critical catalyst in bringing PCP into being, after previous efforts had failed for more than a decade. Its broad perspective—integrating the huge variety of stakeholder values in the development of a proposal, remaining open to all seriously held perspectives and bringing those stakeholders into a productive partnership—was and is pure genius.”
Arthur Lucas, chaplain, and director of spiritual care services, Barnes-Jewish Hospital

“The education portion of the Palliative Care Program has succeeded in opening doors to topics that are not addressed at the School of Medicine, regarding patient suffering and end–of–life care. Additionally, we succeed in making this effort highly interdisciplinary, involving medical, social work, law and business students. This is a claim that few groups can make.”
Aaron Norris, School of Medicine and Senior Student Fellow of the Center