About Simon Fox

Adventures in Caring Foundation is an award-winning nonprofit based in Santa Barbara, California. We have developed exceptional resources for professional and volunteer caregivers that tackle the challenge of burnout and rebuild well-being. We have also met the challenge of how to teach compassion and communicate meaningfully with those who critically or chronically ill—at a standard that restores well-being.

Our executive director, Simon Fox, is available to deliver an inspiring talk on either of these topics at your conference, or to tell the inspiring story of the unique Adventures in Caring mission. Simon has more than 30 years of experience delivering keynotes and seminars throughout the U.S.

Simon J. K. Fox

Executive Director of the Adventures in Caring Foundation in Santa Barbara, California.

Simon Fox has led Adventures in Caring for 33 years. He and his wife Karen, who founded the nonprofit, are internationally respected leaders in teaching compassion—as a practice that supports the healing of the whole person. Their award-winning programs are used in hundreds of hospitals, hospices, and nursing schools. Simon is the primary caregiver for Karen, who has suffered from life-threatening illnesses her whole life.

Adventures in Caring conducts a one-year service-learning internship in relationship-centered care for local students who are pursuing careers in the health professions. They befriend the socially isolated elderly in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, and in the process they develop the communication skills, emotional intelligence, and breadth of heart to embrace human suffering with compassion. The more than one million visits they have made to date, were recognized by President George H.W. Bush with his Point of Light Award.

Simon is co-author of the book, What Can I Say? A Guide to Visiting Friends and Family Who Are Ill and co-producer of five video-based training programs on compassion, including The Medicine of Compassion which won the 2004 International Health & Medical Media Award for the best video in patient care. Simon served on the National Advisory Committee for the American Trauma Society and produced its Second Trauma train-the-trainer program. Currently, he is a member of the Santa Barbara City College School of Nursing Advisory Board.

His latest production addresses the topic of compassion fatigue. Oxygen for Caregivers is a toolkit for health care and emergency services professionals to guard against burnout, build resilience, and sustain compassion.

Simon is a native of Great Britain where he earned an honors degree in physics and geophysics from the University of Bath. He now lives in Santa Barbara with his wife, Karen.

 

 

 

Simon J. K. Fox

Presentation Experience

2018/19

  • LeadingAge California annual conference in Monterey,
    breakout session. Oxygen for Caregivers
  • Association of Senior Care, Santa Barbara. The Adventures in Caring story.
  • Hospice of Santa Barbara. Communicating with Compassion.
  • Women in Communication: Responding to Professional Burnout.
  • Antioch Caregiver Symposium at Santa Barbara City College. Panelist.

 

2017/18

  • Palliative Care Institute, Bellingham, WA. Annual conference. Main speaker. Two sessions on Oxygen for Caregivers.
  • Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara: one-day retreat on Cultivating a Culture of Compassion.

 

2016/17

  • California Children’s Services, Lake Cachuma annual retreat: Oxygen for Caregivers
  • Men in Nursing Conference, Garden Grove with the California Health Workforce Initiative. 30-minute talk on self-care for caregivers.
  • Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara: co-led a one-day retreat on building faciliation skills for leaders of the Cultivating Compassion
  • Santa Barbara Veterinarians Group at VCA Care Specialty Hospital. Two-hour seminar on self-care for veterinary caregivers.
  • Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Joint Southern Chapter Odyssey Conference in Ontario, CA, in October. Closing keynote.
  • Santa Barbara City College Nursing Symposium: One-day train-the-trainer seminar on leading the Oxygen for Caregivers program for regional nurse educators.

 

2015/16

  • American Association of Critical Care Nurses, UCLA Chapter Annual Conference: an introduction to Oxygen for Caregivers in a panel discussion on self-care for nurses.
  • College of the Canyons, Valencia: Two-hour seminar on Oxygen for Caregivers for educators and nurses from the four-county region in coordination with the California Health Workforce Initiative.
  • Southern California Mediators Association: co-presented a panel on self-care with Arezou Kohan for judges, lawyers and mediators at Pepperdine University School of Law.
  • Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara: co-led a one-day retreat with Jill Morris on building faciliation skills for nurse leaders and planning further rollout of the Cultivating Compassion program throughout the agency.

 

2014/15

  • CARE4U Conference in Ontario, Canada: Master of Ceremonies for the conference, plus a seminar on the science behind the Oxygen for Caregivers
  • ELNEC Trainer’s Summit in Anaheim (End-of-Life Nurse Educators Consortium). Presentation of Oxygen for Caregivers to a national audience of nurse educators from in hospice and palliative care. As a result the program was taught at all ELNEC Trainer Summits in 2015 throughout the U.S.A. and in China, Kenya and Romania.
  • Santa Barbara City College: taught five classes for the SBCC Memory Caregiver Program based on the AiC series Cultivating Compassion.
  • University of California, Santa Barbara: the annual Underserved Medicine Seminar series: Oxygen for Caregivers: Guarding Against Burnout, Sustaining Compassion.

 

2013/14

  • Premiere of Oxygen for Caregivers: Guarding Against Burnout, Sustaining Compassion: introductory remarks and facilitation of speakers’ panel.
  • CARE4U Conference in Ontario, Canada. Seminar on the science behind Oxygen for Caregivers.
  • Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara mentor training: six-part Cultivating Compassion program, and one-day train-the-trainer program.
  • Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital grand rounds for hospice and palliative care teams: Moral Distress: When Moral Values Conflict with Workplace Realities.
  • Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital grand rounds for surgical residents: Guarding Against Burnout.
  • Aetherius Society, Hollywood. Three-part pilot program for chaplains and family caregivers: Oxygen for Caregivers: Guarding Against Burnout, Sustaining Compassion.
  • San Ysidro Pharmacy staff training: Cultivating Compassion five-part pilot program.

 

2012/13

  • University of California, Santa Barbara: the annual Underserved Medicine Seminar series: The Medicine of Compassion: Four Core Skills for the Human Side of Health Care. For students entering the health professions.
  • University of California, Santa Barbara Health Professions Association annual conference: Compassion in Action: Being Effective in Emotionally Difficult Conversations.
  • Vista del Monte retirement community, nursing staff leadership. Three-part pilot program: Oxygen for Caregivers: Guarding Against Burnout, Sustaining Compassion.

 

 

2011/12

  • Hendrick Medical Center and Hendrick Hospice Care of Abilene, Texas: two seminars for staff, plus one seminar and one keynote for volunteers, on cultivating the practice of compassion in health care.
  • Vista del Monte retirement community, nursing staff leadership. Four-part pilot program: Anamcara: Care for the Heart and Soul at the End of Life.
  • University of California, Santa Barbara: the annual Underserved Medicine Seminar series: The Medicine of Compassion: Four Core Skills for the Human Side of Health Care. For students entering the health professions.

 

2010/11

  • Indiana University School of Medicine and Bloomington Hospital, IN: the annual Tourner Lecture on Compassionate Care for medical students and hospital clinicians.
  • Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, Santa Barbara, CA: The Alchemy of Compassion lecture for all staff.
  • John’s Medical Center, Jackson, WY: two seminars, The Alchemy of Compassion and Compassion in Action, for hospice chaplains and volunteers.

 

2009/10

  • Neuroscience Unit at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital: Cultivating Compassion seminar series for all nurse on the unit. The year-long series accomplished its goal of building teamwork and creating a significant change in the culture on the Unit.
  • Paramedic Base Station at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital: Sustainable Compassion a new educational video project on self-care for caregivers presented.
  • Presentation about Adventures in Caring led by both Karen and Simon Fox: Raggedy Ann and the Art of Comforting the Sick presented at Birnam Wood Country Club, Montecito (Feb 2010).

 

2008/09

  • Virginia Association of Health Care Volunteers: annual conference in Richmond. October 2008. Conference keynote, plus thee break-out sessions: Communicating with Compassion and Compassion in Action for volunteers, and Cultivating Compassion in Your Team, for directors of volunteers.
  • Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, October 2008 in Montecito. Presentation of the Health Care Heroes Award to Dr. David Chernof.
  • Cultivating Compassion in Your Staff. September 2008 in Santa Barbara. A one-day train-the-trainer seminar for regional directors of nursing and directors of staff development.