BJ Miller: From Caregiver to Care Reciever to Palliative Care Physician

BJ Miller: From Caregiver to Care Reciever to Palliative Care Physician Whole Care Network 49:02

Dr. BJ Miller is a longtime hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. He currently sees patients and families via telehealth through Mettle Health, a company he co-founded with the aim to provide personalized, holistic consultations for any patient or Caregiver who needs help navigating the practical, emotional and existential issues that come with serious illness and disability.

BJ has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. Led by his own experiences as a patient, BJ advocates for the roles of our senses, community and presence in designing a better ending. His interests are in working across disciplines to affect broad-based culture change, cultivating a civic model for aging and dying and furthering the message that suffering, illness, and dying are fundamental and intrinsic aspects of life. His career has been dedicated to Moving healthcare towards a human-centered approach, on a policy as well as a personal level.

Listen in and learn how BJ and the staff at Mettle Health are creating Healing Ties all around us!

Christopher MacLellan The Bow Tie Guy

You Might Know Me As The Bow Tie Guy - "Wearing a bow tie is like wearing two smiles."

When people ask me, "why did you create the Whole Care Network"... I always come back to our caregiving experience and how fortunate I was to find resources that helped me and my partner Richard Schiffer manage our caregiving journey. Every caregiver has a story; through our stories, we find validation, resources, and respite to help manage our caregiving day.

We were fortunate to have our story chronicled in a 2015 Pulitzer Prize-nominated 3-part story, “In Sickness and In Health: A Couple’s Final Journey,” which told our journey of caregiving. The story told of the challenges LGBT partners have in dealing with the medical and legal system, but it also told of the love and joy my partner Richard's last years had on our relationship.