Palliative care

“Palliative care aims to relieve suffering and improve the quality of life for those living with a life limiting illness, as well as their families.” Source: Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association

We offer a range of services to patients receiving palliative care. Every patient has the right to choose which end-of-life care he/she wishes to have or wishes not to have.

Think about preparing your Enduring Power of Attorney for Personal Care and Health Care Directives (Living Will) in order to tell your loved ones and your physician the End-of-life care you wish to receive. By planning, you ensure that your wishes are known and they will be respected.

Palliative care:

• recognizes death as a normal life process;
• does not speed up or slow down death;
• improves the quality of life of the patient, regardless of how much time they have left to live;
• relieves pain and other difficult symptoms;
• provides solutions to the physical, psychological, social, spiritual and practical issues related to the illness;
• helps the patient maintain a life with as much dignity as possible until death;
• addresses individual expectations, needs, hopes and fears;
• aims to provide support to the family;
• fosters opportunities for enriching experiences, personal growth and individual achievement;
• may be provided in the hospital or at home.

Palliative care in hospital

The hospitals of Vitalité Health Network provide specialized palliative care in a calm and comfortable environment. Several rooms are reserved to provide a welcoming environment, including chapels and family lounges.

Loved ones are allowed to visit any time. Cots are available for those who want to spend the night with a patient.

It is important for the patient and their family to feel comfortable at the hospital. They should feel free to bring familiar items that help them feel comfortable: toothbrush, toothpaste, deoderant, comb and hairbrush, nail clippers, electric razer, non-slip slippers, robe, favourite blanket, photos, trinkets, books.

Palliative Care Team Members

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A few clarifications

• Palliative care is provided to people of all ages (from early childhood through adulthood).
   
• Palliative care is delivered by teams of experts trained to respond to the needs of patients with a serious illness.
   
• Palliative care is not provided only in the last few days or weeks of life. Palliative care is important to ease the suffering of patients who have a serious illness that will eventually lead to the end of their life.
   
• Palliative care is for all patients with a potentially fatal chronic illness.

   

• Palliative care is provided where people live because most people prefer to die at home. It is offered at home, in hospice palliative care and long-term care facilities, in the hospital, etc.
   
• The primary goal of palliative care is to help the patient maintain their independence and quality of life despite the illness. This may mean planning for devices or strategies so that the patient may continue to live their life fully.
   
• The end of life does not always involve pain, but, if it does, this can be treated in a number of ways.
   
• It is important to treat pain throughout the illness. To ensure comfort, the dose of analgesics must often be increased. It is important not to fear an addiction.
   
• Palliative care does not speed up the progression toward death. Instead, it provides comfort and a better quality of life after the diagnosis of a serious illness until the end of life.
   
• Addressing the topic of palliative care with the patient and their caregivers does not make them lose hope. Palliative care gives the patient with a serious illness a better quality of life. Hope becomes less a matter of recovery and more a matter of living as fully as possible for the time that remains.
   
• People need to change the way they talk about death. They should think about the care that they want to receive or not receive at the end of life and the type of death that they want. They should talk about it with their loved ones and their physician to make their wishes known.

_{Note: Text from the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association adapted by Vitalité Health Network}