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Palliative Care Definition

Common Palliative Care Questions

Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care

CHPCA Program Directory

Palliative Care Definition

Hospice palliative care aims to relieve suffering and improve the quality of living and dying.

Hospice palliative care strives to help patients and families:

• Address physical, psychological, social, spiritual and practical  issues, and their associated expectations, needs, hopes, and fears

• Prepare for and manage self-determined life closure and the dying process

• Cope with loss and grief during the illness and bereavement

Hospice palliative care aims to:

• Treat all active issues

• Prevent new issues from occurring

• Promotes opportunities for meaningful and valuable experiences, personal and spiritual growth, and self-actualization.

Hospice palliative care is appropriate for any patient and/or family living with, or at risk of developing, a life-threatening illness due to any diagnosis, with any prognosis, regardless of age, and at any time they have unmet expectations and/or needs, and are prepared to accept care.

Hospice palliative care may complement and enhance disease-modifying therapy or it may become the total focus of care.

Hospice palliative care is most effectively delivered by an interdisciplinary team of health care providers who are both knowledgeable and skilled in all aspects of the caring process related to their discipline or practice. These providers are typically trained by schools or organizations that are governed by educational standards. Once licensed, providers are accountable to standards of professional conduct that are set by licensing bodies and/or professional associations. 

Ferris, F.D. et al (2002). A Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association.

Common Palliative Care Questions:

1. What is hospice palliative care?

Hospice palliative care is for anyone facing life-threatening illness. It provides physical, emotional and spiritual care and support for individuals and their loved ones. Through a caregiving team of family, friends, interdisciplinary healthcare professionals and trained volunteers, needs and choices are sensitively met. Hospice palliative care is about living fully to the very end with dignity and respect.

Copied with permission Living Lessons www.living-lessons.org

2. What services are available from hospice palliative care?

The number and variety of hospice palliative care services will vary from place to place but here are some examples:
· Expert medical care to help with pain and other symptoms
· Emotional support for family members and friends
· Spiritual support, covering all faiths and beliefs
· Trained volunteers to visit and give emotional support
· Arranging for home care services
· Arranging respite care for at-home care-givers
· Telephone counseling in crisis situations
· Help in adjusting to change 
· Ongoing bereavement support after the death of a loved one

3. Where can hospice palliative care be provided?

Hospice palliative care can be provided in any setting – at home, in hospitals, in nursing homes or in special hospice facilities.

4. How do I access the services?

To ensure an individual/family centered approach, increased access, and a timely response to services, each district has it's own referral process.

There are palliative care services available in all health districts in Nova Scotia. A Provincial Directory of Palliative Care Programs listing local contacts throughout Nova Scotia can be found on our contact page.

Information taken from Cancer Answers – May 2005, Cancer Answers is a monthly column dedicated to answering commonly asked questions about cancer prevention and treatment. Cancer Care Nova Scotia.

A Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care

Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association, A Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care: Based on National Principles and Norms of Practice

http://www.chpca.net/marketplace/national_norms/national_norms_of_practice.htm

This document is a wonderful resource and has been endorsed by the NSHPCA in the Spring, 2003 and is still considered relevant in 2009.