Palliative Care

The Regional Palliative Care program provides comfort and support for patients and their families who are living with a life-threatening illness. This Capital Health program was established in 1995.

Physicians and specially trained staff strive to improve the quality of both living and dying for patients. Compassionate care is given at home, in a hospice, in the hospital, or on a tertiary palliative care unit. The care setting is important, and it depends on a person's preferences, needs and resources.

The program aims to provide relief from pain and other distressing symptoms, and to support family and friends during illness and the subsequent bereavement process.

Palliative care at Capital Health is about affirming life. Services are centrally coordinated through the regional office. Individuals and their family form the core of the Palliative Care Team, which may include many different health care professionals.

Eighty percent of Palliative Care patients have cancer, and the program also provides patient-focused services to patients with Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), AIDS and other terminal illnesses.

The key to the program's success is patient-focused care. The care given is sensitive to an individual's values, beliefs and practices. The team considers the unique spectrum of patient needs, which includes physical, psychological, spiritual and social aspects of care.

The Palliative Care Team strongly believes that dying is a part of life. Capital Health's philosophy is based on fundamental values from the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. The Regional Palliative Care program is recognized as an international leader in research, education and clinical care.

Capital Health has hosted the annual Palliative Care Conference for the past 16 years. The conference is a part of the team's dedication to improve the understanding and treatment of palliative care for patients and family. The Palliative Care Conference attracts physicians, nurses and allied caregivers from western and northern Canada who are interested in sharing the newest advances in palliative care research and education.