Palliative Care - Moving towards community-integrated care for Canadians

News Release: Harper Government Announces Investment to Support Palliative Care

OTTAWA - The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, and the Honourable Alice Wong, Minister of State for Seniors, today announced a Harper Government investment in support of tThe Harper Government is providing one-time funding of $3 million to the  Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association to support the development of community-integrated palliative care models for the health care sector.

"The Way Forward: Moving Toward Community-Integrated Palliative Care in Canada" initiative will focus on the following activities and outcomes:

• describing the current environment and issues through scoping reviews and discussion documents as a basis for consultations;
• consulting with a wide range of partners and stakeholders;
• engaging partners and stakeholders in a dialogue toward the development and implementation of a framework for community-integrated palliative care models, that will include strategic directions, priorities for action, and a road map for implementation;
• distributing the results to stakeholders who are in positions to implement the framework;
• evaluating the activities, outputs, and outcomes of the initiative. 

Community-integrated palliative care models allow end-of-life care to be delivered in a range of settings and by a variety of care providers so that these services are increased in a cost-effective and sustainable way. Health Canada supports Canadian-wide initiatives that raise quality standards for hospice palliative care delivery, support caregivers across settings, and contribute to raising public awareness and knowledge-sharing.

How will this initiative improve our health care system?

Palliative care will be available in a broader range of settings.  With increasing emphasis on policies that encourage aging and dying "in place," health care systems need to enable delivery of palliative care in any setting, including long-term care facilities, shelters, at home and in other residential care settings.  Having palliative care available in a broader range of settings would alleviate pressures on hospital beds and honour Canadians' preferences. 

More health care providers will be trained in palliative care.  This initiative will facilitate palliative care training for a wider range of care providers, such as doctors, nurses, and social workers who can be better prepared to recognize when palliative care services are appropriate, and either provide those services themselves or refer the person to other care providers.

More Canadians will have access to palliative care.  This initiative will benefit the health care system by improving access to palliative care and reducing the use of hospital beds for end-of-life symptom control that could be done in other settings.

More information will be available about care at the end of life.   This initiative will provide tools and resources to help health care providers, and all Canadians, be better informed about end-of-life care. Advance care planning is the process by which a person considers options and identifies their wishes with regard to future health care decisions. Greater awareness and discussions about care at the end of life can help to avoid unwanted or ineffective interventions at the end of life.  Please visit  advance care planning, for more information.

Integrated care models will help improve efficiencies for the health care system and end results for Canadians.  In the year before death, people tend to use the health care system more (and incur more costs) than at any other period in their lives.  This occurs, in part, because a determination of the most appropriate care, provider, and location of care is not often made, discussed or available. The default in a crisis is the Emergency Department, which has implications for wait times. By examining different models of community-integrated palliative care, identifying and sharing promising practices and putting forward strategies for implementing these models across Canada, this initiative can help to provide better outcomes for all Canadians. 

Funding for this project comes from a Budget 2011 commitment to support the development of community-integrated palliative care models.  It will fall under Health Canada's Health Care Policy Contribution Program (HCPCP) - Health Care System Innovation Fund, which is designed to support the Government of Canada's commitment to improving the health care system by fostering strategic and evidence based decision-making and innovation in quality health care.

For more information on the Community-integrated palliative care initiative, please visit the website being developed by the  Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association.

For more information on the initiative, please visit  The Way Forward.

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