Palliative care

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of people and their loved ones who are facing challenges that come with a serious, chronic or life limiting illness like cancer. Palliative care prevents and relieves discomfort through the early identification, correct assessment and treatment of physical, psychosocial and spiritual suffering – whether at home, in hospice residences, in long-term care, in hospital or in any other setting of the person’s choice.

Palliative care is a critical component of the cancer continuum of care and healthcare overall. For people with cancer, palliative care should start early and can be given alongside treatments that try to cure the disease. Palliative care is provided by an interdisciplinary team who work together to provide support. Their goal is to help people live well during illness and through cancer recovery and survivorship. This includes meeting practical needs and offering grief and bereavement support. End-of-life care is a component of palliative care that focuses on the specific needs of someone who is dying.

Palliative care has been shown to be most effective when given early, before the last stages of life.

Everyone in Canada should have access to palliative care no matter where they live or where they choose to receive care. However, the quality and availability of care is different between and within provinces and territories.

Critically ill Canadians are falling through the cracks when it comes to palliative care. Canada’s patchwork of palliative care services is costly and inconsistent, which is bad for patients and for the sustainability of our healthcare system.

Access to quality palliative care is particularly challenging for underserved populations such as rural and remote communities, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people and unhoused populations. Even when palliative care services are available, not all Canadians know about these services or how to access them.  

CCS recognizes that facing a life-limiting illness, especially in relation to pain and suffering, can cause great concern and severe hardship. Canadians should have access to affordable, culturally safer, high-quality palliative care from the point of diagnosis with a life-limiting condition regardless of where they live and in what setting they choose to receive care. CCS’s efforts remain focused on ensuring that people with cancer have access to the information and support services they need. CCS supports a person-centered, coordinated care approach. Palliative care should be accessible to all regardless of gender, age, income, race, sexuality or other socially determined circumstance.

CCS calls on the federal government to:

• Provide all healthcare providers, including allied providers, appropriate education and training on the basic principles and practices of palliative care to ensure people with cancer receive the highest quality of care.
• Improve palliative care research and systematic, standardized data collection by developing data systems to measure access to palliative care, both at home and in community settings such as long-term care facilities and residential hospices.
• Develop and implement standards or practice guidelines to identify, assess and refer people with cancer to palliative care services earlier in their cancer experience to ensure optimal quality of life.

CCS calls on provincial and territorial governments to:

• Expand equitable, timely and culturally safer access to 24 hour a day and 7 day a week home and community-based palliative care supports for people with cancer especially in underserved populations regardless of ability to pay-out-of pocket in accordance with their needs, including access to virtual services to reduce hospital visits.
• Establish a consistent approach to early identification and assessment of needs using evidence-based tools.
• Train primary care workforces to provide basic symptom management and supportive care to people with cancer at their end of life, including advanced care planning conversations.
• Improve access to and funding for hospice care which includes increasing the number of hospice facilities and beds.
• Support the rollout of advance care planning for all Canadians

CCS calls on municipal governments to:

• Improve access to and funding for hospice care which includes increasing the number of hospice facilities and beds.
• Support the integration of palliative care with paramedic programs to ensure that individuals facing end-of-life have access to the appropriate services and support.
• Remove barriers to the construction of hospices, including zoning and development regulations to streamline the establishment of these facilities.

CCS is a proud member of the Palliative Care Coalition of Canada, a coalition of more than 30 organizations dedicated to improving palliative care for everyone in Canada. To achieve quality palliative care for everyone in Canada, the PCCC advocates for a well-funded, sustainable national strategy for palliative care. It is the mission of the Palliative Care Coalition of Canada to work together in partnership to achieve this goal.