CMA Receives National Award for
Media Relations in Schiavo Case
[Posted 04/13/06]

CMA this week received a national Bulldog Award for excellence in media relations for work by its Communication Center during the Terri Schaivo case. CMA’s entry, “Helping Doctors Help Patients – the Terri Schiavo Case Has a Silver Lining,” received the bronze award in the not-for-profit/association/government category.

In March 2005, the nation’s attention was fixed on a nursing center in Florida, where Terri Schiavo had lived for years in a persistent vegetative state, despite her husband’s efforts to disconnect her feeding tube. The Schiavo case underscored the importance of putting in writing your wishes about end-of-life care. CMA has long championed advance care directives and CMA seized the opportunity to encourage dialogue about this important and difficult issue.

Then, as the CMA House of Delegates (HOD) met that March, Congress and President Bush involved themselves in the case. The HOD reacted by passing an emergency resolution condemning congressional interference in efforts to remove Schiavo’s feeding tube. The award recognized the communication team’s proactive publicity on end-of-life care, as well as its swift reaction to the emergency resolution, which received national attention. Not content to stop there, CMA also created a Public Service Announcement on end-of-life care, which was broadcast by TV stations across the state.

CMA’s involvement in this volatile issue prompted both praise and criticism, but ultimately resulted in tens of thousands more people putting their health care wishes in writing.

Contact: Karen Nikos, 916/551-2069 or knikos@cmanet.org.