News

For over 40 years, hospice societies have provided essential end-of-life care, grief support, and bereavement services to individuals and families. With the help of over 3,600 trained volunteers, these services reach more than 10,000 people each month. However, many individuals remain unaware of the full range of hospice services available to them. The BC Hospice Palliative Care Association (BCHPCA) is committed to increasing awareness and ensuring that those in need receive the care and support they deserve.

Read the Full Media Release

Currently, millions of people globally are experiencing psychological stress because of the compounded effects of social, political, economic, and environmental instability.(1, 2) More than 110 armed conflicts are actively raging across five world regions, reducing the quality of everyday life, including services and supports provided to people with end-of-life and palliative care needs.(3)

In 2023, we drew attention to the link between palliative care and the climate crisis, highlighting the fact that patients and caregivers struggle with climate-related disasters, food and water insecurity, and emerging and remerging vector-borne diseases alongside their existing (and sometimes unmet and worsening) palliative care needs.(4)

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"Reflecting on this experience, I realize that caregiving is deeply embedded in tradition and culture, a natural extension of communal life."

ehospice editorial on traditions, culture and palliative care.

Yesterday afternoon, BC Finance Minister Brenda Bailey tabled the first provincial budget of the 43rd BC Legislative Assembly. The BC Hospice and Palliative Care Association (BCHPCA) is calling on the BC government to address the significant underfunding of hospice and palliative care. While the budget included investments in mental health, addictions, and long-term care, no dedicated funding was allocated to hospice and palliative care services.

With over 45,000 British Columbians impacted by loss each year, and many relying on hospice and palliative care, there is an urgent need for targeted funding. Currently, less than 3% of the provincial health budget is allocated to palliative and hospice care, with many services depending on unsustainable donations. This has led to the closure of hospices, particularly in rural areas. The BCHPCA urges the government to prioritize equitable, sustainable funding for end-of-life care and grief support to better serve BC’s communities.

Read BCHPCA's Response

Last week, the BC Throne Speech was delivered by the Lieutenant Governor, Wendy Cocchia, with a significant focus on mental health, indirectly highlighting the importance of services and supports delivered by the Hospice and Palliative Care community. Please read the BCHPCA response below, which emphasizes the need for better grief and bereavement support, as timely care is essential to prevent complex mental health challenges for those experiencing loss. Currently, only 32% of hospice staff provide regulated grief support, and hospices rely on donations to sustain their services. The community calls for increased funding to ensure accessible, low-barrier care, especially in underserved areas, and to address the growing need for support as families cope with grief.

BCHPCA Throne Speech.pdf

Please email alexandra.frail@mcgill.ca with any tributes you may have.

Co-led by the BC Centre for Palliative care and First Nations Health Authority, this project developed a consensus statement to guide nursing decision making for people receiving palliative care who need subcutaneous medications for symptom management at home.

Read The Statement

The Need

Many people living with serious illness are cared for at home as their illness progresses. Family caregivers play an essential role. When people with life-limiting illness are prescribed subcutaneous medications and are receiving nursing care at home, there are nursing decisions to be made related to the tasks involved in the medications’ preparation and administration.

In Canada, it is common for home care nurses to pre-draw and label subcutaneous medications for family caregivers to administer to people with advanced progressive life-limiting illness at home. However, there is limited evidence to base guidelines for this nursing practice and significant variability in existing guidelines. Some standards specify that medication should only remain in syringes for a short period of time before administration, whereas others guide nurses to consider several related factors in the decision.

Application of standards designed for facility-based care settings or for pharmacy compounding of parenteral medications can profoundly impact the ability for subcutaneous medications for palliative care to be provided within a person’s home.

The Approach

An expert team of nurses, prescribers, pharmacists and family members with lived experience created a consensus statement to address this reference gap.

We adapted a consensus method called the Delphi process, combining input from meetings of a provincial working group and surveys with an expert panel of Clinicians experienced in palliative home care: 13 Nurses, 1 Nurse Practitioner, 2 Physicians, 2 Pharmacists; and focused discussions with 2 people with lived experience of giving medications in a syringe to a person with palliative needs at home.

Informed by a literature review and environmental scan, the provincial working group and expert panel provided their thoughts and opinions of the applicability and importance of identified factors and considerations for the decisions involved with preparing and administering subcutaneous medications for people with palliative needs at home. This information was synthesized by the team and provincial working group into a consensus statement.

The expert statement reached 100% consensus by the panel of clinicians and people with lived experience (n=20).

The consensus statement includes implications for the health system, practice, people living with life-limiting illness and family caregivers, education and research. In addition, the document includes the evidence base and a list of nursing decision-making factors in preparation of subcutaneous medication for people receiving palliative care at home based on consensus of experts.

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The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA)  announced the 25 distinguished recipients of the King Charles III Coronation Medal. We are proud to honor these exceptional champions of hospice palliative care from across Canada with this prestigious award.

The British Columbia Hospice Palliative Care Association (BCHPCA) is equally thrilled to share that one of our esteemed Board Members, Dr. Shannon Freeman, is among the honourees.

Join in celebrating these remarkable individuals at a virtual ceremony on February 28, 2025, at 2:30 PM EST. Their invaluable contributions have significantly strengthened the quality of hospice palliative care in Canada. Click here to register and attend the ceremony.

Click here for the CHPCA Press Release and to see the names of the 25 honourees. 

Did you know that seniors with dementia in Canada have a mortality rate 4.3 times higher than other seniors? Yet, they are significantly less likely to receive palliative or hospice care. This alarming gap highlights the urgent need for improved access to palliative care for dementia patients across the country.

Here are some key stats:

• Over 402,000 seniors in Canada are living with dementia, and this number is expected to rise as the population ages. By 2031, healthcare costs related to dementia will double, reaching $8.3 billion annually.
  
• In 2015, 67% of seniors with dementia who died in acute care hospitals had palliative care needs, but only 21% received primary palliative care, compared to 41% of cancer patients.

In December 2023, as part of our Winter Lunch and Learn Series, we hosted a webinar on “Dementia Care For Clients And Families - A Palliative Approach”. We covered important topics such as:

• Understanding the different presentations of common dementias
  
• Communicating with a client who has dementia
  
• Caring for caregivers, interdisciplinary team & volunteers
  
• Person-centered End-of-Life Care for Persons Living with Dementia and their Families/Chosen Families & Anticipatory Grief

The full recording, presentation slides, and resources are available exclusively to BCHPCA members.

Not a member yet? Join us today to access these invaluable resources. https://bchpca.org/Join-us
Together, we can raise awareness and drive change for those living with dementia, their families, and caregivers.

#AlzheimersAwareness #DementiaCare #PalliativeCare #EndOfLifeCare #BCHPCA #AlzheimersMonth #DementiaSupport #PalliativeCareForAll #HealthcareForSeniors #Caregiving #DementiaAwareness

We are delighted to conclude the 2024 Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health Summit, held from November 20-22, 2024 In Richmond, BC. This year, we were joined by 224 incredible individuals from across the grief, bereavement, and mental health fields. We are deeply grateful to the 66 speakers, facilitators, and moderators whose expertise, insights, and passion made this summit truly impactful.

Our summit was proud to foster diversity and inclusivity by welcoming participants from a wide range of backgrounds, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, as well as 2SLBTQIA+ individuals, people with lived experiences, and members of various underserved communities and communities of color. We are also grateful for the generous funding received from the Vancouver Foundation, which supported our efforts to create an event that truly reflects and celebrates this diversity.

As a triannual event, the GBMH Summit remains a vital platform for critical conversations and interdisciplinary education. Building on the success of our inaugural 2021 summit, we are proud to have explored key topics that continue to shape the future of grief and mental health support This year’s summit offered three specialized streams, Patients and Caregivers, Interdisciplinary Care Teams, and Funders & Policymakers, with tailored discussions designed to enhance support and understanding across these vital areas. Attendees also engaged in inspiring keynote sessions, interactive workshops, and networking opportunities that fostered collaboration and connection.

The Gala Night provided a memorable conclusion to the event, with attendees celebrating a live performance by the award-winning Indigenous band, Twin Flames. The evening also offered a platform to recognize SOSJ, a philanthropic organization that supports local, provincial, and national projects focused on palliative care, neurodivergence, and research initiatives. Their ongoing efforts are vital in advancing the care and support needed in these important sectors.

A comprehensive Summit Report will be released in the new year, capturing key insights and takeaways from the event. This report will be shared with attendees, funders, and policymakers, highlighting both formal and informal care supports in the grief and bereavement space. It will focus on strategies for enhancing mental health and promoting better support for individuals in our communities.

We thank everyone who participated in making this summit a resounding success. Your engagement, passion, and commitment to improving the landscape of grief, bereavement, and mental health will leave a lasting impact. We look forward to continuing this important work together and seeing you at our next summit in 2027!

As one attendee shared, "Not enough words to express the impact of this presentation on me personally and hopefully professionally." This sentiment reflects the profound impact this event had on all of us, and we are deeply grateful for your participation.

The sessions Insights on Resilience Through Loss: Lessons from Science and Life presented by Lucy Hone on Day 3 and Revealing and Reimagining Our Relationships to Grief and Loss presented by Larissa Crawford on Day 2 were both incredibly well-attended and deeply impactful. These thought-provoking presentations captivated a large and diverse audience, sparking meaningful conversations on resilience, grief, and the human experience. Attendees left with valuable insights and practical tools to navigate loss, making these sessions a standout feature of the summit.

For those who couldn’t attend or wish to revisit these impactful sessions, recordings and PowerPoint presentations will be available to BCHPCA members for a minimal fee. To ensure the knowledge and insights from this summit are accessible to as many people as possible, we are offering the pre-recorded sessions free of charge to representatives of underserved communities and to patients from the general public. All GBMH attendees and registrants will receive access to the recordings and PowerPoints via Pheedloop, which will be delivered directly to their email over the next few weeks.