In a way, this is a good thing, said Nancy Lefebre, chief clinical executive and senior vice president of knowledge and practice at Saint Elizabeth Health Care.
鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app a good thing because I think it will help catalyze what needs to happen within the end-of-life palliative care community across the province,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app somewhat of a catalyst for us to ensure that people are talking about palliative and end-of-life care, that people do have good access to end-of-life palliative care, that they know about it, they know where they can go for it, they know what it鱿鱼视频app all about, they know how to access it and that it is available.鈥�
Saint Elizabeth Health Care announced a series of initiatives to keep the conversation going. In early May, it announced a $4-million investment into local hospice care within the next two years.
Lefebre said Saint Elizabeth is looking to invest in palliative care programs in residential hospices across the country. Part of the investment will go towards Saint Elizabeth鱿鱼视频app new collaboration with Hospice Palliative Care Ontario to create an online training program for hospice palliative-care volunteers. There are currently 13,000 volunteers in Ontario and all are required to take a 30-hour course to become a hospice volunteer. The online training program will allow future volunteers to complete their training on their own time, in the comfort of their own home.
鈥淭he challenge for some of them is that they live in remote areas and don鈥檛 have access to the training,鈥� said Lefebre. 鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app a great way to build capacity and competency in the hospice palliative volunteer group.鈥�
Rick Firth, president and CEO of Hospice Palliative Care Ontario, said the organization has been working on this project since its first prototype in 2011. However, it wasn鈥檛 until partnering with Saint Elizabeth that the project got its legs.
鈥淭he beneficial thing about working with Saint Elizabeth is that they already have a very well-respected and extensive program within First Nations communities across the country,鈥� said Firth.
The online program is set to launch by next month.
鈥淭he Way Forward National Framework,鈥� a 2015 national framework study conducted by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA), is the result of a three-year initiative supported by the Government of Canada to create a series of recommendations to improve Canada鱿鱼视频app palliative care system.
The CHPCA framework study said that in order to ensure that all Canadians have access to an integrated palliative approach, it will require significant shifts in the health-care system.
鈥淥ne of the things that we have in Canada is a problem with transitions between care settings,鈥� said Sharon Baxter, CHPCA executive director. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e wanting to stay at home and you鈥檙e close to the end of your life and you need to go into long-term care, it鱿鱼视频app really complicated and if you end up in hospital and you want to go home... we don鈥檛 do a great job of providing the amount of home-based care that you might need.鈥�
Baxter said that although only a small portion of the Canadian population will need complex, intensive hospice palliative care teams, all Canadians will be able to benefit from a more integrated system. As the population ages, there is a greater urgency to make sure that everyone has equitable access.
鈥淥ne of the things that we鈥檙e saying as a national association is that it would be a shame if a Canadian chose physician-assisted death, if they鈥檝e had a poor experience in pain management and have never been referred to palliative care,鈥� said Baxter. 鈥淭he onus on us to provide the best health care possible at the end of life is even more prevalent than it has ever been.鈥�
The CHPCA report recommends a culture shift that encourages people to look at advanced-care planning. This kind of shift requires the right resources to educate individuals about the options they have in setting goals for their end-of-life care.
Many frontline organizations already have programs in place that are working towards a more integrated approach. However, in order for the government to play its role in improving end-of-life care for Canadians, Baxter said it has to start with better data.
鈥淩ight now, we don鈥檛 even know how many Canadians have access to palliative care programs and services because there鱿鱼视频app nobody measuring that,鈥� said Baxter. 鈥淥ne of the things we鈥檙e talking about is that the governments, federal and provincial, need to invest in better monitoring of indicators for people that need end-of-life care.鈥�
The Liberal government has promised $3 billion over four years for a new Health Accord that 鈥渨ill make home care more available, prescription drugs more affordable and mental health care more accessible.鈥�
However, with the focus of drafting new legislation for physician-assisted suicide, many are concerned that palliative care will take a backseat in the debates.
NDP MP Charlie Angus has regularly put pressure on the Liberal government鱿鱼视频app commitment to palliative care, and the Conservatives before them.
鈥淚t was actually quite surprising that on the day that the assisted-death bill came in, the government stood up in the House (of Commons) and said they were committed to palliative care,鈥� said Angus. 鈥淲ell, commitment can鈥檛 be shown by words. It has to be shown by the concrete funds.鈥�
Angus criticizes the Liberals for excluding palliative care in the federal budget, along with many other health commitments they originally campaigned on. He said without new money in health care, we will eventually see services deteriorate.
鈥淭hey haven鈥檛 started these discussions on updating the new Health Accord with the provinces,鈥� said Angus. 鈥淚f the money ain鈥檛 there, it just ain鈥檛 there.鈥�
Last March, Ontario Ministry of Health parliamentary assistant John Fraser released a report based upon a series of consultation meetings which began in November 2014 to gather community recommendations for end-of-life care. The report reiterates the lack of consistency in the delivery of end-of-life care services. The report also recognized the most common solution was to create a single provincial partnership to oversee the services.
Mich猫le Boulva, executive director of the Canadian Organization for Life and Family, said these reports and promises are not enough. She said what is needed is action.
鈥淚t will be very important to develop palliative-care centres that would not be dependent of government money,鈥� said Boulva, adding that any institution that gets money from the government is beholden to government policy.
In addition to raising awareness and putting pressure on local government representatives, Boulva said supporting Catholic institutions working to provide end-of-life care services is an urgent need.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got to make euthanasia and assisted-suicide irrelevant, that people will not even want it because people will feel loved and accompanied,鈥� said Boulva.