Options for Palliative Care
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
What is palliative care?
The World Health Organization defines palliative care as an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, though the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their own bereavement;
uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.
Resources
Palliative Care Coalition of Canada (PCCC) Blueprint for Action 2025–2030. The palliative approach to care gives individuals and their loved ones a stronger voice in their care. It is also a highly effective way to meet a person’s and chosen family’s full range of needs – physical, psychosocial and spiritual – throughout the process of aging or living with serious illness.
How to Access Palliative Care in Canada. Where palliative care is offered in each province and territory.
Dignity, Support, and the Right to Live: Rethinking Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada - Autism Alliance of Canada. Autism Alliance of Canada and our members across the country affirm the inherent dignity, equal worth, and right to life of Autistic people and all persons with disabilities, as protected under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
End of Life Care - The Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. Between 62% and 89% of those who die could benefit from palliative care-including nearly everyone who does not die unexpectedly (Canadian Institute for Health Information. Access to Palliative Care in Canada. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2018.) 75% of deaths take place in acute care hospitals and long-term care facilities, despite the majority preferring to die in their homes surrounded by loved ones. Access to quality care also varies significantly across Canada with remote regions and Canada’s North particularly undeserved. As Canada’s demographics shift towards an aging population, more resources are needed to scale-up equitable access for all Canadians.
No Options, No Choice. Many Canadians living on the margins of society do not have access to the services they need like palliative care, mental health services, and support for people with disabilities. Their needs can be as basic as lack of housing, food, companionship and financial support. Without access to quality care and resources that would meet their basic needs, their options become limited, and without options, there are no choices. At the same time, access to MAiD has been expanded in Canada since its introduction in 2016. In March 2021, the federal government passed revised legislation that changed the eligibility criteria and procedural safeguards for MAiD. The new law grants Canadians with chronic illness or disability, who are not terminally ill, the right to seek MAiD. When they are at their most vulnerable, people may choose MAiD if they don't have suitable options.
