Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

Isa de Jaramillo is a clinical psychologist, who graduated in 1970 from Javeriana University in Colombia. She started her work in two mental hospitals, one private and one state institution. She has taught for many years at several universities in Colombia, including, since 1972, at the School of Psychology at Javeriana University. Currently, she also teaches in the School of Medicine at that university. Dr. de Jaramillo received training as a psychotherapist from the Society of Psychoanalysis in Colombia, and in 1984 she started to work with dying patients and their families. She trained in 1985 with Elisabeth Kubler Ross in the United States and in 1987 with Dame Cicely Saunders in England, and has trained with many other distinguished British leaders in the field of palliative care and grief.

In 1987, Dr. de Jaramillo founded the Omega Foundation to train health care professionals in care of the dying, to begin to promote greater cultural awareness of the psychosocial aspects of palliative care, and to offer patients and families access to skilled practitioners in this domain. For ten years she served as the executive director of Omega and now is the president and chairperson of the board. De Jaramillo has become a nationwide leader in this type of clinical work, as demonstrated by her receipt in 1991 of the National Award in Psychology for her "outstanding and innovative work with the dying and the bereaved." Her publications include two well known books: Morir con Dignidad: Fundamentos del Cuidado Paliativo, 1991 and De Cara a la Muerte, 2000. The latter has been a bestseller in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. She has trained hundreds of professionals in Colombia and Central and South America and has lectured extensively on death and dying. Dr. de Jaramillo serves as vice president of the Society for Dying with Dignity in Colombia, is a member of the Institute for Bioethical Studies, and since 1986 has been a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement.

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