Palliative and end-of-life care

April 2012 marks the beginning of the Partnership’s second five-year mandate and the next phase of implementing Canada’s national cancer strategy. The priorities and initiatives for the next five years are outlined in our 2012-2017 strategic plan, Sustaining Action Toward a Shared Vision. Our website will soon be updated to reflect the activities supporting the strategic plan. The information below reflects the priorities and accomplishments of our work between 2007 and 2012. 

Integrating palliative and end-of-life care into the cancer system 

Approximately 75,000 Canadians are expected to die from cancer in 2011.¹ Efforts to integrate palliative and end-of-life care into the system are an important part of the Partnership’s work. This initiative focuses on supporting all clinicians to enable delivery of this unique type of care, as well as on improving access to information and support.

Progress to date:

• Following two training sessions in Toronto and Calgary, 46 Canadian health professionals have been instructed as EPEC™-O Canada (Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care – Oncology) trainers. Introduction of this training program is continuing through regional workshops in Fredericton, Toronto and Winnipeg. The EPEC™-O curriculum was adapted for use in Canada by the Partnership’s Palliative Care Working Group in partnership with Northwestern University in Chicago and the American National Cancer Institute, developers of the program.
• With investment from the Partnership, the Canadian Virtual Hospice is expanding awareness of its online resources, which offer meaningful information and support for palliative and end-of-life care, as well as in loss and grief for patients, family members and people working throughout health care. The Canadian Virtual Hospice is featured on cancerview.ca.
• A national campaign, Speak Up: Start the conversation about advance care plans , was launched in April 2011 to raise awareness of issues related to end-of-life care and to highlight the importance of families discussing advance care planning — the process of reflecting on and communicating one’s personal care preferences in the event that one becomes incapable of consenting to, or refusing, treatment or other care. This project was undertaken by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association in collaboration with the Partnership and with co-ordinated input from government, the health-care sector and businesses. It represents part of a national framework for advance care planning, which was created following a needs assessment and environmental scan of related initiatives underway across Canada.

[1] Canadian Cancer Society Steering Committee on Canadian Cancer Statistics. Canadian Cancer Statistics 2011. Toronto, ON: Canadian Cancer Society, 2011.